Earlier this year, in March, I took a trip to Vietnam with my husband. In fact, it was our honeymoon. Honeymoons have a reputation for being idyllic holidays spent in posh resorts with a serene view to look out on to. We decided to do it a little differently by plunging ourselves in a chaotic country buzzing with night markets, an army of two-wheelers on every street and plenty of exotic food (given the language barrier, a lot of the time we weren't even sure which animal we were eating). And some amazing drinks.
We spent most days exploring the city we were in on foot (barring Hoi An, where it was a mixture of foot and cycle), walking for over 3-4 hours everyday. Needless to say, walking (and cycling) in a hot humid tropical country can be pretty exhausting. Luckily, the abundant and yummy Vietnamese beverages saved the day(s) and kept us energized through our explorations.
This post is about Vietnamese coffee. God bless the French for bringing coffee to Vietnam, and God bless the Vietnamese for making their coffee industry what it is today. Vietnam is full of both independent cafes and coffee chains, shops selling beans of all kinds (including coffee beans that a cat ingests and shits out, which is then roasted and sold at exorbitant prices) and superior coffee of both the hot and cold variety.
Coffee grinder in a shop selling coffee beans in Vietnam.
Vietnamese coffee is made using a nifty filter that fits right on top of a mug or a cup, providing the coffee decoction right into the receptacle from which the coffee will be ultimately drunk.
The two parts of a Vietnamese coffee filter.
These filters come in varying sizes.
The other interesting feature about Vietnamese coffee is that it uses condensed milk instead of milk. Apparently, the genesis for this practice can be traced to the 19th century, when the French introduced coffee in the country, and when the country still had a very nascent dairy industry.
Note the condensed milk settled at the bottom of the coffee. Once stirred, it will become the more familiar colour of milky coffee seen in photos below.
Vietnamese coffee can be had hot or cold. It was the cold version that I really took to, and sort of became obsessed with, drinking 3 to 4 servings of these in a day. Another thing to be borne in mind is that Vietnamese coffee is really strong! It requires a lot of coffee powder to create the coffee that is sold in Vietnamese cafes (we realized this when we tried to make Vietnamese coffee back in Delhi, using Vietnamese coffee powder and a Vietnamese coffee filter). So my multiple iced coffees kept me sufficiently pumped up through the many kilometres I walked everyday.
Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk (or "Viennamee ai coffee wi cunday miyk"), also known as cà phê sữa đá, is basically hot coffee decocted using a filter, and then immediately poured over condensed milk and a significant quantity of ice.
Here are some photos of this incredibly addictive beverage from our trip. Enjoy!
Vietnamese iced coffee is made by pouring decocted hot coffee over ice.
Coffee masquerading as beer - 1
Coffee masquerading as beer - 2
Coffee against the Saigon skyline
Last coffee in Saigon, on a terrace cafe.
Coffee up close
Black coffee, iced coffee with condensed milk and some other refreshing beverages.
Another angle. (As an aside, that cucumber juice was da bomb.)
Humble hot coffees (with and without milk) dwarfed by a multi-course breakfast whose accompaniment they were.
Iced coffee chilling on the beach with friends!
Iced coffee enjoying the view.
Iced coffee from a chain in Vietnam. If my memory serves me right, this was from the Trung Nguyen chain, which is the equivalent of our Cafe Coffee Day, but a lot more prolific.
His and her coffee - hot and cold (with a cool star in it!).
Waiting for coffee to percolate aboard a boat in the South China Sea (sorry, no photos of the scenic view).
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