Vietnam · Hanoi
Cà phê trứng, Vietnamese egg coffee, tops strong coffee with egg yolk whipped with condensed milk. Invented in 1940s Hanoi; how to make it at home.
Cà phê trứng was invented in Hanoi in the 1940s, when milk was scarce and egg yolk was used instead. It is now a Hanoi institution.
Egg yolk whipped with sweetened condensed milk until it becomes a thick, pale, custard-like foam — essentially an uncooked sabayon — spooned onto strong black Vietnamese coffee.
You drink through the foam, so each mouthful is bitter coffee and sweet custard together.
Whisk one egg yolk with two tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk for three or four minutes, until it triples in volume and turns pale and thick. An electric whisk makes this trivial; by hand it is work.
Brew strong coffee — a phin filter traditionally, or a double espresso — into a small glass, filling it about halfway.
Spoon the foam on top.
Serve in a glass set in a bowl of hot water, which is how Hanoi cafés keep it warm.
It is traditional and it is raw. Use fresh eggs from a source you trust, or pasteurized eggs, sold in many US supermarkets, and tell anyone you serve it to.
Like a tiramisu that has been turned into a drink. Sweet, rich, and the coffee’s bitterness is essential to keep it from cloying.
The drink is credited to Nguyễn Văn Giảng, a bartender at Hanoi’s Sofitel Metropole, whose family still runs Café Giảng in the Old Quarter.
The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.
Aluminum · 130 ml · not induction
Over ninety years old, sold by the million, and misused by almost everyone who owns one. Brewed properly — low heat, pre-boiled water, off the heat at the first gurgle — it is one of the great cheap coffees.
Best for: One or two strong cups on a gas or electric cooktop, at almost no cost.
51 mm (2.01 in) portafilter · 15 cm (5.9 in) wide · pressurized baskets
About six inches wide, heats in forty seconds, and makes a decent drink at an entry price. It ships with pressurized baskets that fake crema from any grind — which is exactly why it works for beginners and why it stalls after a year.
Best for: A tiny kitchen, a first espresso machine, or a second machine for an office.
