Saigoneers have always been blessed with a thriving ice cream scene, perhaps an inevitable perk of living in a city that’s rarely not scorching hot. Amid a thriving scene of inventive gelato and soft serve flavors, one frozen treat place has stood the test of time for nearly 70 years: Kem Vi Bổn.

The first time I tasted Kem Vi Bổn was nearly 20 years ago when I was still in school, and I can confidently say that, after trying it just a few days ago for this article, the taste has remained unchanged. The shopfront has been renovated, and the ladies who run the place might look a little older, but it’s astonishing how the menu and recipe have stayed consistent throughout the decades. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The Vietnamese language uses “kem” as a catch-all term to refer to all frozen desserts, but the products that Kem Vi Bổn is best known and loved for are actually popsicles. They also make a selection of ice cream in tubs. Available popsicle flavors could change depending on the day, but are usually in the range of mung bean, black bean, coconut, taro, durian, and kumquat.

At VND4,000 per kumquat pop and VND7,000 for the rest, this is likely to be the cheapest dish you will be able to purchase in Saigon these days. Are the popsicles the best thing you will taste in the city? Absolutely not, but boy do they give the most bang for your buck. What’s more, the ladies here are so sweet and considerate: they saw that our ice-pops were melting after being photographed in the sun, and offered to exchange them for new ones from the freezer.

Every flavor is made from simple local ingredients, prepared simply. Admittedly, to a tourist or visitor not having grown up with these ice-pops, they can taste aggressively plain, but, if you want to partake in a piece of Saigon culture, this is one of the cheapest ways to do so, for a refreshing outcome. My favorite is still kumquat after all these years, though to me, it looks and tastes more like Tang orange juice than tắc.

Kem Vi Bổn was founded by the family of Lý Vĩnh Đạo and Võ Thị Hai in 1958. Đạo’s father, Lý Thân, learned how to make ice cream when he was living in Cambodia. When they relocated to Saigon, he opened up a shop and taught all the children the family trade. A few sons and grandchildren even started branches across the city over the decades, but today, only the OG shop has managed to endure.

According to Thân, “bổn” means lifeblood, like in “bổn mạng” and “vi” means “because.” He named the shop as such to remind every household member that it is the family’s livelihood, something to maintain and preserve.