Whence
Egg coffee (cà phê trứng)
Drink

Where does Egg coffee (cà phê trứng) come from?

Egg coffee comes from Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Strong coffee is crowned with egg yolks whipped with sugar and condensed milk into a thick, sweet foam, a recipe that, by its inventor's family's account, began in the 1940s when milk was scarce.

A barman without milk

The story comes from the family of Nguyen Van Giang. In 1946, they say, he was a bartender at Hanoi's Metropole Hotel, and milk was hard to find during the First Indochina War. In its place he whisked egg yolks with condensed milk into a foam and served it on coffee. Guests at the hotel liked it so much that he left to sell it himself, at his own Café Giảng. Other accounts date the invention more broadly to the late 1940s.

Whipped, warmed and spooned

Egg coffee starts with strong robusta coffee filtered through a phin. Egg yolks are whipped with sugar and condensed milk and warmed gently in a water bath, because boiling would curdle them. The foam sits so thickly on the coffee that a teaspoon comes with the cup, to eat the topping before drinking the coffee below. The hot version arrives in a bowl of hot water to keep it warm. Café Giảng's version also contains a little butter and cheese, and the rest of its recipe is a secret.

A family recipe

Giang passed his recipe down to his children. Café Giảng, down a narrow alley at 39 Nguyen Huu Huan Street in the Old Quarter, is run by his youngest son, Nguyen Tri Hoa, who has added versions with rum, chocolate, cinnamon and green tea. A few blocks away, Giang's daughter Bich opened Café Đinh, in an old house overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake. Electric mixers have since made the foam easier to whip, and cafés serve egg coffee hot or iced.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org ↗ · theguardian.com ↗ · vietnamnet.vn ↗ · atlasobscura.com ↗

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