MEET THE MAKERS
A Slice of Life BY SHAFAQ PATEL | PHOTO BY ADRIANNE MATHIOWETZ
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long with getting their clothes cleaned and pressed, Porter Square Dry Cleaners customers have also started to purchase something else: floral jelly cakes, a classic Vietnamese dessert. The owners—Hoa and Khanh Nguyễn—started Porter Square Dry Cleaners shortly after immigrating to Massachusetts from Vietnam about two decades ago. When the business moved from Elm Street to Highland Avenue, some of the previous clients followed to support the couple, and new customers quickly became regulars. Now, while some of the regulars are catching up with Hoa, they’re shown a white wedding album filled with jelly cake photos. These cakes, called rau câu in Vietnamese, are created by Hoa’s older sister, Thủy Nguyễn. Thủy, who often goes by Viva, came with her family to Hoa and Khanh Nguyễn’s home in November 2019. Back in her hometown, Đà Lạt, Thủy had a three-year-old business where she baked and sold jelly cakes. She closed her store, Rau Câu 3D, a few months before coming to America. Hoa translates for Thủy. She learned how to make these jelly cakes from a teacher in Vietnam. After practicing for a year, she started her own business. These gluten-free cakes have a gelatinous consistency, 28 Meet the Makers | scoutsomerville.com
and are known for the threedimensional jelly flowers that appear inside the cake. Thủy grew up as an artist, and she was surrounded by creativity. Her other sister creates intricate paintings and fabric dyes, and her father used to draw, but Thủy brought her craftsmanship into the kitchen. Hoa says Thủy also makes delicious egg rolls and yogurt, but rau câu is her specialty. “Oh, I love to eat them when we have extra,” Hoa laughs. Rau câu comes in various flavors including coconut, chocolate, strawberry, and coffee. The colorful flowers are made from natural vegetable dyes in Vietnam, Hoa translates. The bottom, more opaque layer is harder and holds up the cake. Thủy says these cakes, because of the drying and setting time, take her between three and five hours to make. Over the years, Thủy has perfected the technique—some people use molds to create the three-dimensional effect, but Thủy intricately draws in the realistic looking flowers by hand. This Vietnamese sweet is sparsely sold around the Greater Boston area, and other Vietnamese-Americans often purchase the dessert. But Thủy and Hoa want to share rau câu with other Americans as well, and that’s why she’s advertising it to her customers.
