Vietnamese Coffee

My first job as an adult was as a receptionist in Seattle’s Chinatown. It was there I first tried (and fell in love with) Vietnamese coffee.

Needless to say, I was excited to try a bona fide cup on my first ever trip to Vietnam.

After a lengthy bus ride from the port to Ho Chi Minh City, we needed a bathroom, so we popped into a McDonald’s and had our first cup of Ca Phe Sua Da.

McDonald’s food isn’t winning any Michelin stars, but one thing I’ve learned in my world travels is that they make excellent coffee drinks.

If you’ve never had traditional Vietnamese coffee, it’s a densely brewed robusta mixed with sweetened condensed milk. From there you can add your choice of ice or hot water.

In my Chinatown days, the restaurant would bring the coffee to your table in a set up like you see in the first photo: a nice layer of sweetened condense milk on the bottom with a “phin” on the cup slowly dripping black coffee on top. (And for some reason, all the phins in Seattle’s Chinatown had Woody Woodpecker etched on top.)

I used to order a Vietnamese coffee on my way to take the deposit to the bank. On my return to the office, I’d pop into the restaurant and enjoy my tasty treat. Ah, such fond memories!

In Vietnam, they bring the coffee out to you already mixed. As you can see, people sit on tiny stools. Everywhere we walked, we’d thread our way through clusters of people enjoying coffee and chatting.

Later in the day, we stopped at a cafe called Say Coffee. I wanted to sit on the little stools, but by then we really needed to bask in some air conditioning.

Larry had another tasty Ca Phe Sua Da, but I opted for a new to me beverage,
Ca Phe Trung, which is coffee with an egg yolk in it.

Milk shortages in the 1940s inspired bartender named Nguyen Van Giang to whisk an egg yolk onto milk as a way to stretch supplies. This created a taste sensation that is still enjoyed today.

While I found it tasty, Ca Phe Sua Da remains my favorite. In fact, I could go for a cup right now…Read more