A pink appearance for a bun rieu boat

Bun rieu (traditional Vietnamese noodle) is a common breakfast meal at the Cai Rang floating market in Can Tho but 35-year-old Ngo Quoc Bao and his wife Nguyen Thi Ngoc Linh decided to step it up a notch to approach customers. 

The old boat along with almost all the items including towels, plastic baskets, pot lids are covered with pink color. Even the owner is "pink" with pink shirt and pink conical hat.

The unique idea came from the owner’s preference for the color pink and his wish to create a spot for tourists who want to take pictures. Since wearing pink on the bun rieu boat, Bao and his wife have been successful, serving 150 bowls every morning, three times higher than before.

Artist makes a fortune from miniature communal houses

Mr. Dinh Nhieu from Phu Thien district, Gia Lai, with his skillful hands has transformed bamboo stalks into unique mini communal houses with sophisticated patterns. Before making a model, he spends many years researching the details of the design of the traditional communal house so that his product will be similar to the actual scale. To enhance the product's aesthetic appeal, he also paints the bamboo slats.

Alongside the small-scale communal house, he also designs beautiful baskets with vibrant colors. Thanks to the handicrafts, he earns millions of VND every day.

Music teacher turns leaves into unique works of art

The dried leaves through the skillful hands of teacher Nguyen Nhu Sinh (in Dai Dong commune, Dai Loc district, Quang Nam province) have become a special work of art. From a young age, she is passionate and skillful at art and loves to create and transform seemingly discarded items into beautiful products, Sinh told Dan Tri. 

Realizing that the market has a high demand for unique products, Sinh began to study the line of paintings made from Bodhi leaves. "I chose the Bodhi leaf to make an art piece because it is very beautiful and has a very meaningful heart shape," Sinh revealed. 

She has over 2,000 creative works made from dried leaves, which have been sold to customers throughout provinces and cities. The price of each picture made from Boddhi leaves ranges from a few hundred thousand to several million VND depending on the size and complexity.

The S-shaped jelly cake with flowers of the three regions of Vietnam

Artist and 3D jelly making instructor Thuan Nguyen worked with his students in Hanoi to create the S-shaped Vietnamese jelly cakes, leaving everyone in awe with all kinds of flowers typical for each region of the country. The 3D shapes include 26 types of flowers 18cm in diameter, covering over 4.5 m². 

“The ingredients to make the S-shaped 3D jelly cakes are completely natural and about 52kg were used. The total cost is 12 million VND. This is the first 3D jelly cake shaped like Vietnam, placed in a traditional eco-friendly bamboo mat that preserves its culture and is recyclable," said artist Thuan Nguyen.

Indoor sea crab farming in Hanoi

Le Duc Canh's crab farm in Van Phuc commune, Thanh Tri, Hanoi is the second indoor crab farming model in the North (the other model is in Ha Long, Quang Ninh). The sea crabs are raised separately in boxes with different floors and numbers. This prevents the crabs from hitting and eating each other.

In order to raise sea crabs, Canh, 35, researched and installed a circulating water filtration system to keep the microelements and minerals in the water. To have sea water, Canh had to hire a car to transport water tanks from Ha Long to Hanoi. Leftover food and crab waste go through the coarse filter system, then to the microbiological tank and the disinfection system. Microorganisms that live on kaldnes plastic particles act like corals to filter food waste and crab waste to help clean the environment.

"Lion" chickens

Pham Minh Bien, 35, from Vinh Long had a predestined relationship with raising birds and strange chickens with "big breasts" such as Serama or Polish chickens.

Polish chickens have many colors, especially plumage on their head like a small crown, displaying a haughty beauty.

“Polish lion chickens are both beautiful, the more hybrids they reproduce, the more their color mutates, which is very beautiful. Due to the name 'lion', this breed of chicken is very 'strong', warlike and has a mane of feathers on its head like a lion," Bien shared. 

A one-month-old Polish chicken costs 300,000 VND each while adult chickens are around 2 to 4 million per pair.

Hanh Nguyen