Vietnamese coffee culture:
where egg yolks & egg whites make a coffee fluffy like a cloud..
with the added taste of a creamy tiramisu.

I first heard about this amazing coffee place on a documentary about Vietnamese coffee. Cafe Giang is one of the few cafes which survived throughout the French and American war and has mastered this recipe which has now been past down through two family generations. (His sons now carry this tradition which can be found in two different parts of Hanoi.)

After endlessly googling my obsession of this so called coffee which is meant to taste like a mouthful of tiramisu, I knew hunting this exact place would be a challenge due to lack of info online. Getting cranky from the endless walking in the heat with my dress sticking to my ass, I almost gave up thanks to the numerous dead leads.

After the last remaining effort in finding this place..

I spot a small dingy looking sign with a dark long alley. Afraid to enter, I enter regardless of not knowing what lies ahead. Surprised at the open roof top and the natural light, family photos catch my eye as it displays their generation of mastering the art of coffee. Last but not least, cafe giang has super cute tiny wooden decor, that is bound to make any westerner feeling like a giant towering over the bony locals when sitting at a table haha.

Tell me what it tastes like..

Egg white coffee is originally served as a hot beverage. You could get this iced but personally I think if your after the tiramisu flavour you’ve gotta have it hot. When taking your first sip, you get a mouthful of fluffy sweet milky egg white with a tinge of coffee like a tiramisu (without the savoiardi sponge fingers)! Amazing!

The froth that never ends..

Served in a mug with a bowl of cold water, you could see how fluffy and heavy the forth is that you cant even see the thick dark coffee hidden underneath. Its not like a normal frothy cappuccino.. Its almost like the bubbles in a bubble bath. When you stir it, the froth never seems to disappear or dissolve and the froth stays put like a still cloud.

egg yolk coffee

After spotting on the menu “egg yolk coffee” I knew this was another chance for me to try something similar yet different to Cafe Giang. I waited a good 15minutes for my coffee to arrive i assume it must have been a coffee which requires more effort?

Latte drinkers, this one is for you!

Noticing its not as fluffy as the egg white coffee, the taste is very rich and creamy. The bitterness of the coffee almost goes unnoticed as the rich egg yolk balances the bitter bite. Egg yolk coffee is one of those beverages you wouldn’t want to drink before going on a long trip. Because its so rich, its bound to make any stomach erupt haha.

condensed milk + coffee + ice × 2 = daily ritual

Love at first taste! Whee I was 15, my Auntie and Uncle took the family for our first Vietnamese dining experience and there I had my first Vietnamese coffee. As I got older, I’ve tried numerous iced coffees in Cabramatta and nothing seemed to compare to what I experienced back then until I touched down in Ho Chi Minh City where I claim to have had the best iced coffee (ca phe sua da) throughout the entire Vietnam trip.

Ca phe su da (milk coffee with ice – my twice-a-day ritual) Personally I like my coffee strong and not too sweet. Nothing is worse than coffee made too sweet which tastes like a mouthful of sugar. I find the taste hard to describe.. Its completely different to western coffee. I sometimes find the condense milk mixed with the strong coffee sometimes gives off a taste which reminds me of super dark bitter chocolate / mocha…weird i know (B) seems to agree with me.

where’s coffee there’s dessert..

This is probably the most pimped up dessert i had throughout the trip if your on the hunt for something sweet. Chances are your best sticking to the good ole street food like fragrant sweet sticky rice (xôi màu) which is popular in the south of Vietnam and line the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Believe me, there’s a lot of shonkly cake stores out there.. if i told you, you’d be put off cream cakes.. haha

Cafe Giang

39 Nguyen Huu Huan,

Hoan Kim, Hanoi

Baguette&Chocolat

Thac Bac St,

Lao Cai Vietnam