VietNamNet Bridge – There are tens of food shops near the Saigon Railway Station to sell steamed rice to poor people.

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Since 5 a.m. in the morning, these food shops are ready for their business. In the photo is a rice shop on Nguyen Thong Street. There are two kinds of rice. The high quality one is sold at the price of VND10,000 per kg and normal rice at VND8,000 per kg.

 

 

Those who pass by the residential quarter of Nguyen Thong and Nguyen Phuc Nguyen streets in HCMC’s District 3 can notice many sign boards of rice selling venues.

The sellers wake up daily from early morning to cook rice to sell to their customers. Rice buyers are junk-collectors and lottery sellers and xe om drivers and poor students coming from different provinces of the country.

Those people can’t afford decent meals daily so they have to save money by visiting these food shops.

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Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga, owner of a rice shop at 149 Nguyen Thong Street, says she has had 17 years doing this job. Everyday she cooks from 400kg to 500kg of rice. Apart from poor retail buyers, her customers include food shops around the city.

 

 

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Tran Thi Cuc, who comes from the central coast province of Binh Dinh, has been living in Saigon for 20 years. The street food seller is a regular customer of a rice shop at 149 Nguyen Thong Street. She buys a small portion of rice for VND4,000 to eat together with some food to save money to support her family in her hometown.

 

 

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A view at an area selling rice near the Saigon Railway Station in HCMC’s District 3

 

 

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Regular customers of rice shops are junk collectors, lottery sellers and students – Photos: Thanh Hoa

 

 

 
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