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| A view of The Princess and the Pea Café - Photo: Tuong Vi |
The café going by the name of The Princess and the Pea was opened in August by two film directors, Lam Minh Khoi and Vo Thi Thach Thao, as they were inspired by the well-known fairy tale of the same name by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen.
Since it is in a very small alley on the crowded one-way street of Pasteur in District 1, it may take you some time to spot it. Car or bike parking is recommended at the HCMC Exhibition House, 92 Le Thanh Ton Street, and the coffee shop is just across the street. Entering Alley 85 for some meters and looking left, you can see Princess and the Pea sign and go up an old apartment building.
On the walls along the stairs there are many pictures featuring Western folk culture. The dark purple-painted café covers over 40 square meters on the third floor.
This is like a private world for the princess and is divided into three compartments. Given the limited space, the owners arrange low tables with cushions and pillows for guests. All cushions, pillows, curtains and even menus are made from flowered cloths.
At the window is the little smiley doll statue in a blue dress with a basket in her hands. She is a naive countryside girl who sings and dances in the yellow rice field as the tale tells her story.
At the end of the room, there’s a small bed piled with many mattresses reminding guests of the tale. Beside the bed are a mirror and a long red and black gown of the princess. Next to her bedroom is a place for the princess to entertain with the old stories and listen to music.
If you come there, don’t forget to taste a dish called burning rice. Dip a piece of burning rice into a small bowl of fatty onion and roll it with shrimp and salted dried meat, then dip it into chili sauce.
Visitors come to the place because they are curious about The Princess and the Pea tale by Andersen. Once upon a time, there’s a prince seeking a perfect princess for marriage and he goes many places but he finds no perfect lady. On a stormy night, a girl knocks on the door of his palace begging to stay there for a night. She says she’s the perfect one the prince is looking for. To check it, the queen leaves a pea on the bed and piles 20 mattress layers on the pea. In the morning, the queen asks the girl whether she sleeps well or not. The girl says she could not sleep well because of something hard under the bed. The queen smiles as she finds a true wife for her son.
On Friday, from 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., guests can listen to live music performed by amateur singers with famous movies soundtracks. Moreover, a monologue comedian nicknamed Cucumber performs there and tells guests about daily life stories. Because so many guests come on Friday but the room is small, for a maximum of 60 guests, you need to make reservations by Thursday by phone 0907.703.159 or 0907.010.192.
If you wish to stay away from the noisy streets and enjoy a fairy tale atmosphere after a day of hard work, don’t hesitate to go there.
