Drinking a cup of café trứng (egg coffee) in the capital city is a
cultural experience
Đinh Cafe’s French-style balcony gives its customers the best view
of the Hoan Kiem Lake outside
Be it summer or the rainy season in Ho Chi Minh City, I tend to
tackle the heat somewhat differently these days.
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| Egg coffee in Hanoi |
It is not an iced tea or an iced coffee that I turn to for relief,
but a hot café trứng (egg coffee), which is a Hanoi specialty favored
particularly on cold days.
A southerner, it was love at first sight and first sip for me. I
fell headlong for the amber-colored fluffy drink’s looks and its flavor.
1. How to make egg coffee - a unique drink when travelling to North Vietnam
It is quite easy to prepare the drink, which was introduced in
1946 by Nguyen Van Giang, who used to work as a bartender at the historic
Metrophole Hotel during the French colonial days, and one of my friends in
Hanoi had given me the recipe.
To prepare this eggy version of cappuccino, you need a phin cà phê
(Vietnamese coffee filter), a clear cup, three spoons of roasted and ground
coffee, three spoons of sweetened condensed milk, cheese and one egg yolk of
trứng gà ta (free-range chicken egg).
After boiling hot water is poured over roasted ground coffee and
the beverage begins to drips directly into the cup, the egg yolk is whisked
vigorously with a tablespoon of brewed coffee and half a tablespoon of cheese
for three minutes until you end up with a frothy, fluffy mixture.
Sweetened condensed milk is added slowly into the brewed coffee
and allowed to sink to the bottom of the cup, resulting in two distinct layers
of colors, the black of coffee and white of milk.
The fluffy mixture is then poured on top as the last step.
2. Amazing taste of Hanoi egg coffee - a unique drink for your Best of North tour
(Another option: whisk the brewed coffee, sweetened condensed milk
and the yolk together and wait for the coffee to sink and the foam to rise to
the top.)
My café trứng is ready and and it is tasty, with a delicate
balance between the bitterness of coffee, the sweetness of milk, and the rich,
silky taste of cheese and egg.
However, it still does not match my first café trứng experience in
Hanoi- Best of North Vietnam last winter. Of course, the local coffee makers have their own secrets to
make their drink special and unique, but in this case, I know for sure it’s not
about ingredients or the recipe.
3. Dinh Café- a famous coffee shop you should visit when travelling to North Vietnam
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| Egg Coffee in Hanoi |
My friend in Hanoi, Do Thuy Linh, did not take me to Giang Café,
one of Hanoi’s oldest coffee shops, opened by bartender Giang in 1946 after he
left the hotel to promote his own drinks, but to Dinh Café, owned and opened by
Bich, Giang’s daughter, in 1984.
According to writer, historian, southern culturist Son Nam, coffee
was introduced to the capital by French people several years later than in
Saigon. While Saigon’s two first coffee shops, Lyonnais and Café de Pari were
opened in 1864, Hanoi had to wait until 1883 to have its first café. However,
all these were opened and owned by French people and for French people and
upper-class locals only, as other locals preferred tea and weren’t used to the
black, bitter drink.
The Giang Café on 39 Nguyen Huu Huan Street, Hoan Kiem District is
probably one of the first coffee shops owned by a Hanoian meant for Hanoians.
According to Giang Café fans, Dinh’s café trứng is not the best,
but it still has its own “claws” to attract coffee lovers, and even foreign
tourists.
My friend obviously had her reasons to choose Dinh Café. It has a
great location and a great view of the Hoan Kiem Lake, although to get that
view it takes time, patience and a bit of competitiveness. It is also an ideal
place to observe how Hanoians enjoy their coffee, catch a bit of local culture,
blend in and see café trứng work its magic on cold days. The shop is on the
second floor of an old building in the Old Quarter. The first floor is occupied
by a shop selling all kinds of bags and suitcases. To reach the 15-square-meter
shop for our late morning coffee at around 9 o’clock, we passed through a
small, narrow path on the right side of the bag shop, almost in darkness before
encountering a century-old wooden staircase that shook with every step we took.
4. Coffee shop's atmosphere in north Vietnam
Inside the shop, the wooden floor inspires less confidence than
the stairs. The condition of the floor worries the owner Bich, a retired
teacher. But whatever its condition, the room is always full of people, day and
night, especially in winter of the North Vietnam.
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| A Coffee shop in Hanoi |
It seems to have enough space for everyone, no matter how many
they are. Sitting on small polished wooden chairs and tables, people, young and
old, men and women, don’t mind having their backs or other parts of their
bodies touched by others and vice versa. They do not even notice it. They just
focus on their conversation with their friends in a voice loud enough not to
bother others.
Hanging on the walls are some old paintings and decorations
predating the beginnings of the Doi Moi period in 1986. A cassette is placed on
the bar on the right side of the room for customers to bring and play their own
tapes.
It’s rare to find this sight in Saigon where people prefer bigger
seats and wider spaces, and don’t like to have their private space violated by
others.
“Is it because of the cold weather that people get close to each
other?” I asked Linh, who stands next to me waiting for our seats since there’s
no place left for us. Yes, the 15-square-meter shop still manages to have a
place for customers to wait in a line.
“Maybe, it is cultural,” said Linh, who had worked in the south
some years ago. “Due to history and social-economic factors, Saigon is more
western, whereas Hanoi retains its village-lifestyle where people easily get
close to others and treat strange people as their family members. Saigon is
open and Hanoi is intimate
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| Inside a coffee shop |
“Why doesn’t the owner renew and enlarge the shop to receive more
customers? Surely it is not that she cannot afford the renovation,” I remarked.
“She can, but here, people prefer to enjoy coffee in such places,”
Linh said.
After five minutes we got our own seats near the entrance to the
French-style balcony facing the lake outside, after a couple of customers left.
“We are lucky,” said Linh, winking. “Look, we are very near the
balcony chair and table, the most sought after in this coffee shop. To sit
there, we have to wait or arrive early.” The balcony seat was occupied by a
couple of foreigners.
Linh and I are not the only ones who are coveting the balcony,
others are constantly casting glances at it even as they talk. They are waiting
for the couple to leave.
We ordered a café trứng and café đen nóng (hot
black coffee).
Half an hour later, the foreign couple left and the place was occupied by two
young men.
I smiled at Linh at our “loss.” But the focus shifted to Dinh’s
café trứng, served in a small non-transparent cup.
“It matches very well with the winter,” I said, “It is tasty,
light, but enough to warm me up.”
People in the north typically do not use much sugar and prefer the
salty taste, but their most famous coffee is sweet, sweet enough to satisfy my
southern palate.
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| Giang Cofffee shop |
Another friend, Hoang Minh Thong, a young lecturer at the HCMC
University of Social Sciences and Humanities also agreed with me that the best
place to enjoy café trứng is at café in Hanoi.
He visits Giang Café and Dinh Café to enjoy café trứng and other
traditional drinks everytime he visits the capital city, he said.
Although, café trứng is being served since the last few years at a
coffee shop in Tan Binh District in Ho Chi Minh City, “it is not just about the
drink, but also the ambience that enhances its taste,” Linh said, adding,
“especially when we enjoy it with our best friends.”
(Source: Thanh Nien News)
