HCMC – “Thuận, is there any way you can ship me a bowl of snakehead fish rice porridge? My wife is pregnant and craving it like crazy, and I don’t know what to do.”
That desperate phone call from a fellow Quảng Trị native came during the COVID-19 lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City in 2021, when the entire city was under strict social distancing. For Nguyễn Đức Nhật Thuận (32, from Hải Lăng District, Quảng Trị Province), the request was both touching and haunting. From that moment, thousands of packs of snakehead fish rice porridge—born in the poor land of hot winds and white sand—came to life.
From easing cravings for compatriots…
Thuận moved to HCMC in 2009 for university. After three years of working, he switched gears and opened a restaurant specializing in Quảng Trị dishes, calling it Cà Mèn. At first, the eatery was just a few tables in a small alley in Tân Phú District. As more customers came, it moved to Phú Nhuận District, becoming more spacious and closer to the city center.
The restaurant served rice dishes, bánh lọc, bánh ướt, beef porridge, and other specialties from Quảng Trị. But the star dish was snakehead fish rice porridge, also known as bánh canh cá lóc from Hải Lăng. All ingredients and cooking styles were brought directly from his homeland.
“Every Quảng Trị person living far from home craves food like our mothers used to cook, especially snakehead fish porridge. It has the strong aroma of nén (a local shallot), fiery chili and pepper, the sweetness of fish, and chewy rice noodles you can’t find anywhere else. Even people who weren’t from Quảng Trị, once they heard about the dish, came to try it,” Thuận said.
In Quảng Trị, this dish is also called cháo vạt giường (“bed plank porridge”), because the long, straight noodles resemble bed planks. Preparing it requires meticulous care: fresh snakehead fish is cleaned, marinated with spices like nén and pepper to remove odors, sautéed over high heat, then simmered to absorb the flavors before going into the broth. Once the broth boils, the noodles are added carefully to avoid breaking. A proper bowl must be topped with lots of green nén leaves, fried chili, and chili fish sauce.
Business was thriving until the pandemic struck. In August 2021, during lockdown, Thuận received the emotional phone call from the fellow countryman with a pregnant wife craving porridge. That night, he lay awake, realizing: if people in Saigon were longing for it so much, what about those living abroad? Where could they find it? From then on, he resolved to package snakehead fish porridge—first to satisfy Quảng Trị people away from home, then to share it with the world.
“Cà mèn is a familiar container in every rural family. Back home, I used to bring meals to my parents in a cà mèn. When I moved to the city, I dreamed of using it to carry Quảng Trị food to Saigon. That’s why I chose it as both my restaurant name and my brand for packaged snakehead fish porridge,” Thuận explained.
…to packaging a specialty
Determined, Thuận and his team researched how to package the dish, ensure food safety, and reach customers. He knew instant noodles, instant phở, and instant hủ tiếu already dominated the market, making it a tough battle. But for him, “tough” didn’t mean “impossible.”
By June 2022, the first packs of snakehead fish porridge were launched. The packaging was eye-catching, larger than a standard instant noodle pack, containing vacuum-sealed rice noodles, dried scallions, concentrated broth, and whole marinated, cooked fillets of snakehead fish. The frozen product had a shelf life of 90 days.
The convenience and authentic flavor moved customers to tears. For many, it tasted almost identical to a bowl freshly served at the restaurant. Beyond the Quảng Trị diaspora, even those with no ties to the province fell in love with it. Tens of thousands of packs have since reached customers.
“I’m so happy that now, no matter where I live, I can enjoy snakehead fish porridge from home. The flavor is just like freshly cooked. Since discovering this, I always keep it stocked in my kitchen,” said Lê Nữ Yên Thường (28, a Quảng Trị native living in Quảng Ngãi).
Reaching Japan and Singapore
Some wondered why he branded it cháo bột cá lóc instead of the more familiar bánh canh cá lóc. Thuận explained: “Beyond business goals, I want to preserve and promote traditional values of Quảng Trị cuisine.”
Images of the porridge packs went viral in online communities of Vietnamese abroad. Overseas Vietnamese in Australia, the U.S., and the U.K. eagerly sought ways to get their hands on it. For them, nothing compared to tasting hometown food after years away. The product has since reached international markets, mainly through informal channels. In Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, it is already sold in retail outlets.
His ultimate goal is to export to major markets with large Vietnamese communities. “Once, a customer in the U.S. had someone bring her the porridge. She called me in the middle of the night while cooking it, crying because the aroma reminded her of her late parents. The scent of ném, chili, and pepper overwhelmed her with memories. That’s the value I’ve always dreamed of bringing to people,” Thuận shared.
After months on the market, with much feedback and encouragement, Thuận introduced a non-spicy version so that everyone—from children to the elderly—could enjoy it. “I’m also planning to one day return to Quảng Trị to build a factory, not only for snakehead fish porridge but also for other specialties of my homeland,” he said.
