1. 'Quan oc co mo’ (Ancient Tomb Snail) is the name diners have given a popular snail shop located near the intersection of Tran Hung Dao and Tran Binh Trong streets in district 5 in HCM City.

The eatery is located in the cemetery area of scholar Truong Vinh Ky. In addition to the ancient house, where the scholar lived his last years, and his tomb, there is also a small cemetery of the Truong family.

Le Quang Toai, the owner of the shop, told VietNamNet that previously the land area was preserved and cared by his wife’s family. Twenty years ago, his wife decided to open a small snail shop on the yard within the cemetery campus.

Toai and his wife initially called their shop ‘Oc san vuon’ (Garden snail shop). However, clients of the shop preferred calling it ‘oc co mo’, or antique tomb snail shop.

Toai’s snail shops open from 5 pm to 11 pm every day, providing 30 different seafood products, mostly snails of different kinds. A serving  costs VND65,000-70,000 on average, a relatively high price if noting that this is a shop for ordinary folk.

2. Tran Phu is a special street in HCM City as it has two funeral parlors. Local households mostly sell votive papers and provide funeral services. However, there also exists a steamed sticky rice vending cart. It attracts many customers, especially at night.

The owner of the steamed sticky rice vending cart is Luu Bao Minh, 49. He inherited the business from his mother and family who have been selling steamed sticky rice for 40 years.

Minh told VietNamNet that the initial name of the ship was ‘Xoi man 409’ (steamed sticky rice with salt 409). However, diners still use strange names such as ‘xoi am phu’ (the hades’ steamed sticky rice), ‘xoi tang le’ (funeral steamed sticky rice), and ‘xoi nha xac’ (morgue steamed sticky rice).

“We sell steamed sticky rice served with crushed peanuts, fried onions, pork floss, Chinese sausage and soy sauce from 3 pm to midnight,” Minh said, adding that the busiest time is 7 pm onwards.

3. 'Lau bo nghia dia’ (Graveyard beef hotpot), the name of a shop on Nguyen Thi Dinh street in district 2, is located among graves. The eatery shop, which has been in business for 30 years, is open from 5 pm to 9 pm and provides take-away hot pot with beef.

Linh Trang