Languages / Vietnamese / Level 1 · Unit 2

Có không — Do You Have?

Lesson 6 of 170 · Level 1 of 6All lessons
In this lesson

You are learning do you have?: you will read the scene it happens in, take apart the pattern behind them (có... không? — availability question), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.

The scene

Bún Chả Hương Liên, 24 Lê Văn Hưu — where Obama ate with Anthony Bourdain in 2016. The photograph of their empty plastic stools became one of the decade's most famous food images.

Bún Chả Hương Liên — Obama's Table

In 2016, Barack Obama sat at a plastic stool in Bún Chả Hương Liên with Anthony Bourdain and ate bún chả for $6. The restaurant has since laminated the photograph and placed it on the wall. The menu has not changed.

Bún chả: grilled pork patties and pork belly in a sweet-sour dipping broth, served with cold rice vermicelli, fresh herbs, and green papaya pickle. Eaten by dipping noodles into the broth — not pouring everything together.

The stranger sits down. 「Có bún chả không?」 The server looks at him. One dish. One answer. 「Có!」

「Cho tôi một suất. Không cay.」 Three minutes. The broth arrives, pork sizzling. 「Ngon lắm!」 He means it completely.