(VNF) - If you happen to visit Trang Tien Street, the famous street right around Sword Lake (Hanoi), you can’t miss the Trang Tien ice cream shop – a popular brand to generations of Hanoians. Today, the shop has been well-known among foreign tourists and expats, draws hordes of locals and visitors every day, every season of the year.

Trang Tien ice cream cone and stick (source: Hanoi Times)

A quick peep inside Trang Tien ice cream shop can tells you all about its popularity. Every day, regardless of which weather it is, there is always a crowd of people, patiently queuing in front of the refrigerators to purchase their favorite icy treat.

Once an order is successfully placed, customers usually rush outside to enjoy their ice cream in front of the shop.

Despite the shop’s several refrigerators, it is often hot – even in winter – because it is packed with craving customers.

Around 5 or 10 years ago, Trang Tien ice cream was not well- known among tourists in Hanoi, although the place is located in the Old Quarter, close to most of the capital's must-see sights.

Time flies and thing changes. Nowadays, more and more travelers, not only those from other provinces of Vietnam, but also from overseas, are flocking to the nearly-60-year-old shop for a sweet icy treat.

In Hanoi residents’ eyes, Trang Tien ice cream shop is not simply a place where they can enjoy the taste of ice cream, but moreover, it has become a fabulous venue for family gathering or couple’s dating.

For people who were born in the 80s and earlier, Trang Tien ice cream represents their sweet childhood memory, when ice cream was something luxurious.

For foreign visitors, this ice cream shop is special for its motorbike shop look-like.

Trang Tien ice cream is an ordinary shop, except the fact that it is built backwardly, with a small yard in front of the counter for ice cream eater to park their motorbike.

Once a motorcycle-rider customer hit the shop, he will park his vehicle amongst the 50 or so motorcycles already there, before blending in the crowd to reach the counter.

Unlike “pho” (Vietnamese noodles), compared to the first day it appeared, the flavor and the price of Trang Tien ice cream don’t change much.

In Trang Tien Ice Cream shop, VND 7,000 (USD 0.5) is enough to quench your thirst and ease your hunger with an ice cream stick. Make your choice among 6 flavours, representing both Western and Vietnamese style, including young rice flake, taro, green beans, vanila, coconut milk and cocoa.

When the Trang Tien Ice Cream Shop first opened in 1958, there were only two flavors of “ice cream sold on a stick.”

Nowadays, the shop has extended its products category, offering ice cream cones, ice cream served in cups as well as ice-cream balls in box for takeaway.

In hot summer days, the shop can sell 10,000 to 20,000 ice pop a day.

That means, in spite of the invasion of a wide range of foreign ice-cream brands, Hanoians remain loyal to “quality” ice cream.

Trang Tien ice cream has its exotic flavours, which a untold number of Hanoi generations have been 'addicted' to. Visitors who drop in Hanoi and have chance to taste Trang Tien ice cream will hardly forget the unique experience with Hanoi’s culinary culture: eating ice cream while you are standing.

There are several ways to enjoy Trang Tien ice cream. You can enjoy ice cream cone, ice lolly or a cup of ice cream on a hot summer day. People who want to enjoy Trang Tien ice cream must stand in line beacause it is very crowded, specially in every afternoon.

Trang Tien Mochi Ice Cream (source: Doi Song Phap Luat)

Trang Tien ice cream has become an iconic brand of Hanoi. This ice cream has a variety of flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, cereal, young glutinous rice, coconut milk.

One of the most unique feature which makes Trang Tien ice cream appealing to people is the use of natural ingredients to make a “fresh-tasting” product.

For example, the shop’s green rice ice cream combines the light fragrance of young rice mixed with the succulent taste of coconut milk.

Another feature that sets the Trang Tien ice cream apart from other brands is its soft and chewy texture, with tiny grains of green beans or green rice sprinkled on the ice cream.

Recently, the family of Trang Tien ice cream just welcome a new member, which is a sweet dessert inspired by Japanese culinary culture. It is Trang Tien ice-cream mochi (Japanese traditional glutinous rice cake), available with four different fillings: strawberry, green tea, coffee and vanilla.

Similar to the traditional mochi ice cream, Trang Tien mochi ice cream is a round dessert ball consisting of a soft, pounded sticky rice cake formed around an ice cream filling. The ice cream flavors the confection while the mochi adds sweetness and texture.

Mochi ice-cream are sold in box of three, costs VND 30,000 each. So each box might cost people four times of the amount paid for an ice cream on stick, but still a reasonable Japanese-mochi treat which is well-received by many, especially young consumers.

Buying ice cream at the shop has become a cultural ritual for generations of Hanoians, especially the elderly, who say the shop reminds them of the post-war period when shopping was hard work, which required them to queue for hours. Maybe that's how they reflect on the past to slow down the pace of the modern life, for a while.

Just like each person has a favorite ice cream flavor for himself, each of us has our own reason to be in love with Trang Tien ice cream, just like how we are in love with Hanoi, regardless of where we come from./.

( Phi Yen )