As autumn settles over Hai Phong, Cau Dat Street is gradually returning to its familiar rhythm. The long lines outside bakeries have grown shorter, and boxes of mooncakes have traveled with customers to destinations across the country. Yet at No. 172, the aroma of freshly baked pastries still lingers. The Mid-Autumn Festival may be over, but for those devoted to the craft of traditional baking, the work continues, along with the stories that have shaped it.
For more than 75 Mid-Autumn Festival seasons, Dong Phuong Bakery has kept its ovens burning through changing times and generations of bakers. Today, the family tradition is carried forward by Dang Thi Thanh Huong, director of Dong Phuong Confectionery Co., Ltd. Few people know that before devoting more than three decades to the craft, she never imagined that her life would become so closely intertwined with the familiar aroma of the family bakery.
Before entering the profession, Huong worked in banking. It was a stable career, far removed from the heat of the ovens and the sleepless nights that accompany each mooncake season. As the daughter-in-law of Bach Van Uy, who established the bakery in 1950, she had spent years around the family business but had never expected to take responsibility for carrying its legacy forward.
Recalling how she came to embrace the profession, Huong said a question from her father-in-law stayed with her: “What will you leave behind for your children and grandchildren?”
Gradually, she realized that however good her banking career might be, someone else could take over when she left. But without someone to continue the family bakery, who would keep its ovens burning through the seasons to come?
At 27, Huong decided to leave banking and return to the family business. To outsiders, it may have seemed a risky turning point. Yet throughout the journey, she found encouragement and support from her husband’s family.
The early years were filled with challenges. She had to learn the trade while working and caring for her family. One busy day followed another, and one baking season gave way to the next. Over time, the craft became inseparable from her life. More than three decades after her father-in-law first posed that question, she found her answer in the work she had pursued with unwavering dedication.
“I believe everyone has a mission in life. Mine is to carry on the work my family established, preserve what was passed down to me, and strive to do it better every day,” she said.
As she learned the craft, Huong gradually understood why baking is said to be a skill that cannot be passed down through written instructions alone. Some of the elements that define a mooncake’s flavor are difficult to capture in a recipe book. On humid days, the dough may need adjusting; when the bean paste is drier than usual, the amount of water must be carefully modified. Every batch requires the baker to observe, judge, and build experience over time.
She still remembers Bach Van Uy’s advice: mastering one task is difficult, but finding different ways to do it is even harder. As the years passed, she came to appreciate the full meaning of those words. Making a delicious mooncake is only the beginning. Preserving its distinctive flavor over time and ensuring that the craft continues to provide a livelihood for those devoted to it are challenges that can span a lifetime.
His advice has remained with her through countless Mid-Autumn Festival seasons, prompting a question of her own: How can each season end with customers’ trust intact, familiar flavors preserved in their memories, and the bakers who make them still able to earn a living and find a place where they belong?
Innovation, she believes, has long been part of her family’s tradition. Bach Van Uy himself continually experimented with and refined his mooncakes. Building on that spirit, she understands that preserving a traditional craft does not mean keeping everything unchanged. It means knowing which values must be protected and which practices need to evolve to meet changing market demands.
The distinctive flavors of Dong Phuong mooncakes, from the pomelo blossom aroma of its soft, chewy snow-skin cakes to the family’s carefully developed ingredient blends, have been preserved across generations. Yet Huong believes product quality must never stop improving.
For her, preserving the craft means more than maintaining the flavors established by previous generations. It also means taking responsibility for making every batch better and meeting consumers’ increasingly high expectations. Guided by this philosophy, Dong Phuong has invested in production systems and introduced technology into baking and packaging to ensure more consistent product quality.
The same spirit of innovation is reflected in the bakery’s gift boxes, which feature designs inspired by the distinctive character of Hai Phong, its maritime heritage, and national pride.
“We want every box that leaves our store to be more than a Mid-Autumn Festival gift. We hope it carries images, stories, memories, and personal recollections of Hai Phong, as well as a love for our hometown and our country,” she said.
Looking back on her journey of carrying forward the family business, Huong makes no secret of her pride. But as Dong Phuong becomes more widely recognized, that pride is accompanied by a responsibility to preserve the flavors and quality that have earned the brand its reputation and to remain worthy of the trust customers have placed in it over the years.
The Mid-Autumn Festival has passed. The shelves are emptier, and the lines outside the bakery have gradually thinned. Yet the memories linger among the many visitors who have experienced its mooncakes. For Huong, the master baker, the end of one season marks the beginning of quieter days spent selecting ingredients, passing on skills, and preparing for the next full moon.
Reflecting on Dong Phuong’s journey of more than seven decades, Huong expresses deep gratitude to Bach Van Uy, the generations of her family, and the bakers who have worked tirelessly beside the ovens. She sees herself as someone entrusted with the responsibility of carrying the tradition forward, grateful for the craft, for its customers, and for the hands that quietly continue to create Dong Phuong’s distinctive, familiar flavors.
For her, the greatest reward is being able to devote her life to work she truly cares about. More than three decades of commitment to the family craft have also been her answer to her father-in-law’s question: “What will you leave behind for your children and grandchildren?”
The answer lies in every batch of mooncakes, in the customers who return, and in the way she preserves the craft and passes it on to the next generation.
Perhaps what Huong hopes to leave behind is not merely a bakery brand that has endured across generations, but also a love for the craft, integrity in every product, and a commitment to safeguarding the values established by those who came before her. A traditional craft can truly endure only when the next generation not only cherishes what it inherits but also has the dedication to nurture it and take it further.
More Mid-Autumn Festival seasons will come, and once again, shoppers may line up outside the bakery on Cau Dat Street. More important, however, is that after each season, there will still be people quietly tending the ovens, ensuring that Dong Phuong’s familiar flavors remain not only memories cherished by earlier generations but also a living part of the lives of generations to come.Tighten the repetitive endingMake the opening more news-focused
