With a frontage barely more than a metre wide, Mr Nguyen Quoc Khanh's heirloom donut shop on Thai Thinh Street still attracts a steady stream of customers — and sells more than 5,000 Vietnamese donuts a day. It's one of the small, deeply local food stories the Hanoi Street Food Tour loves to seek out, the kind of place you'd never find from a guidebook.
A Local Shop with a Sweet Treat
The shop is open from 7am to 6pm every day. After three years of opening, it currently sells an average of more than 5,000 units a day. From Friday to Sunday, the amount of cakes sold per day can reach more than 7,000 pieces, Mr Khanh said. The shop has two types of donuts: honey donuts and sugar donuts. Basic ingredients include rice, green beans, molasses and white sugar.
From the cake recipe passed down by his grandparents, Mr Khanh has made a number of changes and improvements to both maintain the family's traditional flavour and suit the taste of most diners. The biggest change is that instead of making sweet fillings like the tradition, Mr Khanh switched to making salty fillings to neutralise the taste and reduce the feeling of being sick when eating.
Preparation on a Daily Basis
Every day, the shop prepares more than 100 kg of rice to make cake crust. Glutinous and non-glutinous rice are pureed with water into a powder, then pressed dry, kneaded with separate spices until the dough is firm, flexible and adheres well. The filling is made from green beans, going through the steps of soaking, pureeing, cooking and shaping into balls.
Take a certain amount of rice flour, put the filling in the middle and carefully wrap it, gently pressing into a flat circle. The amount of green beans the shop prepares every day is about 30–40 kg. After forming the cake, put it in the first pan of oil to soak until the cake floats, then transfer it to the frying pan. Frying is the most difficult step because the temperature needs adjusting at each stage.
Special Techniques to Attract Customers
When first transferred to the frying pan, the oil must not be too hot, or the cake will dry out and the shell will explode because the inside has not fully expanded. You need to increase the heat slowly so that the cake cooks gradually. Each batch takes about 30–35 minutes. Once the donuts are cooked, drain the oil and move to the final step. White sugar and molasses are cooked in two separate pans until melted, then the cooked cake is added and stirred continuously so the crust is evenly covered with molasses and sugar.
In contrast to the hard, crunchy and sweet crust is the pureed, smooth green bean filling, salty and fleshy. The amount of filling is adjusted just right so that when bitten, the green beans spread evenly across the entire cake but do not overflow.
Customer Feedback
Sugar donuts are popular with diners in the summer, while honey donuts are popular in winter, Mr Khanh said. Hoang Huy (20), a student at a university near the shop, said he often buys cakes for himself and his friends. "The shop's cakes have moderate saltiness and reduced sweetness, so I can eat about 3–4 cakes at a time as an afternoon snack," Huy said.
Honey and sugar donuts are both 6,000 VND each. The shop has no seating and only sells takeout and delivery via food ordering applications. Most cake buyers are middle-aged and young; many tourists from far-away provinces come to buy directly. The cake does not use preservatives, so it cannot be stored for long or transported to other provinces.
Plan Your Visit
During peak hours from 3:30pm to 5:00pm, Mr Khanh's wife joins to help sell. Because the shop is small and there is no parking, customers often park their cars on the street and line up. To stay safe — Thai Thinh is a busy artery — come in the early afternoon or order delivery via app. If you'd rather have a guide walk you between Hanoi's small, family-run food stops, our Hanoi Street Food Tour is built around exactly this kind of place. (Source: VnExpress)
