Nguyen Thi Thanh was a legendary street food figure in Saigon. Since 1995, she ran a humble sidewalk stall in bustling District 1, serving her daily rotating noodle soups to tourists and locals alike. Working rigorously, perhaps dreaming dreams of one day. And then … Anthony Bourdain sat in her stall and ordered the daily soup. He anointed her The Lunch Lady. Her soups were, “like discovering new neighbourhoods every few mouthfuls,” he enthused on his iconic show No Reservations . And just like that, a star was born.

A few years later, Nguyin Thi Thanh had another interesting visitor: Michael Tran, a Vietnamese-Canadian entrepreneur from Vancouver. Her delicious rotating soups resonated with him to the point that in 2018 Tran was afforded the opportunity to bring the restaurant to Vanco

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