Taste of Vietnam: The Perfect Cup

Taste of Vietnam: The Perfect Cup

Sweetened Vietnamese Coffee - Brandon Nguyen 

Vietnamese cuisine brings me back to the childhood days, where my grandmother would prepare special dishes in her kitchen. In a world where the food of Chinese, Japanese, Americans, Italians, French, and Mexicans dominate, traditional Vietnamese food is often overlooked. From beef phở to crispy spring rolls, executive chef, Helene An, and daughter Jacqueline An share many recipes directly from their Vietnamese kitchen in Ăn: To Eat

Ground coffee in a phin filter.

For novices, cooking can be quite a challenge. Having little to no experience in the kitchen, I decided to start simple with sweetened Vietnamese coffee, or cà phê sữa. According to Helene and Jacqueline An, "Vietnam is second only to Brazil in coffee exports, but surprisingly, the rich flavors of Vietnamese coffee are relatively unknown outside the realm of coffee connoisseurs" (An, Helene & Jacqueline An 269). What makes Vietnamese coffee unique? Unlike any other coffee, Vietnamese coffee is bitter with just a touch of sweetness. A small word of warning, this coffee is extremely strong. I remembered drinking sweetened Vietnamese coffee one day in the afternoon and not being able to go to sleep!

The coffee is ready to be served!

For the coffee, a special metal drip filter (top) called a phin is used. If you learn to master the phin, everything else is simple. Though I am embarrassed to admit, it took me two attempts to make the perfect cup. Despite the fact that it took second effort, the ingredients are simple. We pour hot water over the ground coffee in the phin. The water drips into a cup with about two tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk. A lid is placed over the filter to retain the water's heat (right). This takes approximately four minutes. I learned it the hard way that by rereading the instructions slowly and carefully I was less vulnerable to mistakes. 

Typical Vietnamese breakfast.

To adjust the flavor, I definitely played around with the amount of sweetened condensed milk and ground coffee that was being added, making multiple cups to find the right ratio of bitterness and sweetness that was ideal for me. I even tried adding ice cubes to make cold coffee. As stated by the mother-daughter duo, "Experiment with different coffee brands and the measures of coffee and condensed milk to find your preference for the perfect cup" (An, Helene & Jacqueline An 269). 

In the end, I brewed more coffee than my family could even drink. In fact, it was enough for the entire neighborhood! Creating this recipe has immediately transported me back to my childhood days again. It has brought my grandmother back in the kitchen and most prominently, revived all the great memories I had with her. If you could make any Vietnamese drink or dish, what would it be and why?

Resources: 

An, Helene, and Jacqueline An. Ăn: to Eat: Recipes and Stories from a Vietnamese Family Kitchen. Running Press, 2016.