The manager then confided in us that she was born in Dong Hung district of Thai Binh province and has been living in Russia for nearly 30 years. The restaurant was opened by her son four years ago and now they have had up to four restaurants. The reason for the opening of the restaurants is that the Russian people like ‘Pho’ very much.
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Many diners at “Pho Viet” restaurant in Leninshkiy Prospect, Moscow |
Noticing that we are looking at the Vietnamese pith hat and the loud hailer at the entrance of the restaurant, she smiled and said that she chose to decorate the restaurant that way to remember the hard times during the subsidy period in Vietnam.
In Moscow, it is not hard to enjoy a bowl of ‘Pho,’ which costs 350 rubles, or 120,000 Vietnam dongs, while a fish noodle bowl costs 400 rubles, or about 130,000 Vietnam dongs.
Sitting in the food court in the outskirts of Moscow, it seemed to us that we were in Hang Cot street or Dong Xuan market in Hanoi. We suddenly missed Hanoi so much! It was now understandable that overseas Vietnamese always wish to see Vietnamese tourists. For them, Vietnam is where Vietnamese are!
According to statistics, currently Russia has a 80,000 -strong Vietnamese community. More than 20% of them live and work in the capital of Moscow. The overseas Vietnamese in Russia mainly live on selling consumer goods, light industrial, agricultural, aquatic, and handicraft products. There are also students studying at Russian universities. “Due to the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Vietnamese have returned home, but most of them still stay united together here to overcome difficulties,” said the manager.
Too busy talking about the situation of the Vietnamese community in Russia, we forgot to ask the name of the manager. She, however, never forgot to wish a big victory to the Vietnam People’s Army teams participating in the Army Games 2020 and invited us to visit the restaurant again before returning home.
Not only Vietnamese expats whom we met in Russia deeply understand the words “fellow countrymen.” While working at Alabino training ground in the outskirts of Moscow, we also met a number of Russian-Vietnamese couples, like Tran Phi Na and Sergey Bunyakov, who consider both Russia and Vietnam as their homeland. Even Russians who heard of us came and claimed to be “fellow countrymen.” On the afternoon of August 28, when the Vietnamese tank team just finished the second game of the qualifying round of the Tank Biathlon event at the Army Games 2020, a tall elderly man and a boy came to us, People’s Army Newspaper reporters, and said, “I am Russian, but Vietnam is my second homeland.” With little Vietnamese, he introduced himself as Anatoliy Polyakov, whose wife is a Vietnamese. As he once worked in Ho Chi Minh City, to him, Vietnam is his second homeland. Knowing that we are Vietnamese, he and his grandchildren came to claim to be our fellow-countrymen.
We would like to send our big thanks to the manager of “Pho Viet,” Mr. Anatoliy Polyakov, the couple Tran Phi Na - Sergey Bunyakov and those who always think of Vietnam as their homeland and serve to strengthen the friendship between the two countries of Vietnam and Russia.
Reported by People’s Army Newspaper reporters
Translated by Huu Duong