Hanoi Journal: CAFÉ GIANG: Coffee's holy grail

 

HANOI, Vietnam – No simple haven but a virtual heaven, becoming a veritable pilgrimage site for coffee lovers from all over, is this traditional coffee shop tucked away in some side street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

Indeed, Café Giảng holds a kind of a holy grail for the devoted afficionados – “cà phê trứng” or egg coffee, generally accepted as having been invented by the man after whom the coffeeshop was named. 

Egg and coffee do really make strange cup fellows, but found flavorsome fusion in the exigencies of the first Indochina War in 1946. Vietnamese brewers and drinkers prefer the strong and bitter French-press Robusta coffee balanced not   with cream and sugar but with sweetened condensed milk. Even as there was a shortage of milk caused by the war, there was plenty of poultry. Necessity birthed experimentation with whisked egg yolk substituting for milk. And the rest, as cliched, is history – in this wise, told and retold over millions of hot cups or cold glasses of cà phê trứng. 

Simple as the egg coffee recipe is – Vietnamese Robusta coffee first brewed in a cup added with raw chicken egg yolk and whisked to a creamy mix first, the taste varies, depending on the drinker’s palate – from liquefied tiramisu to meringue-like egg topping, to custard crème, even to drinkable crème brûlée! 

Of cà phê trứng’s goodness though, there is no argument. Hot cup after hot cup, cold glass after cold glass. Enhanced, no doubt, by the café’s vintage Vietnam vibe – the narrow alley from the street to the ground floor with three or four small low tables and wooden low stools and the kitchen whence emanates that glorious whiff of coffee beans; the even narrower staircase to the second floor with three rooms separated by arch entryways; and the narrowest of balconies fronting the street.    

Aye, no Hanoi experience is complete without a Café Giang visit. Punto Lifestyle Team/Photos: BZL