Vietnamese Coffee

My first contact with Vietnamese coffee was at Vivocity, after the Msian scholars' outing to Sentosa. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant which offered set meals at around S$6, which was suprisingly budget, considering its location. BX ordered hot Vietnamese coffee, and we were so intrigued by the weird contraption served to him- a cup on a plate on a cup.

Those who ordered iced coffee only got iced coffee in a plastic cup (top-right).

Turns out, the stainless steel cup above is a coffee filter which has ground coffee powder inside, and hot water from metal cup will seep through the coffee powder and drip out as dark coffee. "Oooh gravity's pulling it down!" exclaimed the Physics students.

Since then I've always wanted to make my own Vietnamese coffee, and finally I had the chance to do so when I visited Hanoi in June. It's a pity I didn't get to drink any authentic coffee from the coffee shops in Hanoi. (We did get to eat a lot of authentic and awesome street food though) But we did get to drink some coffee on the morning of our Halong Bay Cruise, and it was horribly bitter, as though each drop of coffee contains the 'essence' of a thousand bittergourds. But then again, the coffee was brewed beforehand, and was poured from a glass into our cups. We didnt use any coffee filters at all, which is what I want to do.

Yay and the chance came when our friends brought us to a mall when we returned to Hanoi. We bought coffee - both instant coffee packs and ground coffee powder, and *ta-da* a coffee filter.

I tried to make my own Vietnamese coffee, but failed terribly on the first try. Some of my mistakes:

• Using only one and a half teaspoons of coffee powder. By right: at least 3-4 teaspoons required.
• Pouring a lot of boiling water into the filter, causing the water to gush pass the thin layer of coffee powder and the filter. Result: water does not have enough time to mingle with the coffee, causing bland coffee; coffee powder falls through the filter easily. By right: pour only ~20ml of boiling water into the cup at first, and let the coffee powder absorb the water. The powder will then enlargen and clump together, and will be less likely to fall through the filter. Let the powder absorb the boiling water for a few seconds, then add a cup-ful of hot water to the filter, and let it drip
• Did not use a glass cup

My second try was much better. The coffee was much thicker and flavourful, much drinkable. But there is still quite a lot of coffee powder which fell through the filter, and hence the coffee isn't so 'clean'. More room for improvements.

Making your own cup of Vietnamese coffee is an art in itself. There are so many things that go into a perfect cup of coffee. It's like Chinese calligraphy, like playing piano or gardening. There is no way you can get it perfect in your first try. Often, you fail badly. But with repeated tries, and of course, some learning of technique, you gain experience and expertise. You can't be perfect - that is very subjective - but you can get better. The danger of this is that with each try, you want to improve on your previous try, and achieve better. I haven't tasted such a yearning for improvement in such a long time, and I fear that I may become addicted to making coffee. With each sip of your own coffee, you marvel at how much you have improved from your previous try (or how little), but you always think of how you can make your coffee better on your next try. More powder? A little more/less water for the coffee to absorb? More condensed milk? How to make the coffee richer, how to reduce the amount of coffee powder which fell through the filter?

But the best thing about Vietnamese coffee is not its flavour per se. It's waiting for your coffee to drip, and tasting from your cup the passion and affection that was poured in together with your coffee. Each bead of coffee dripping down from the filter has its own story to tell. It is the result of an invisible journey of water through coffee powder. The results of small individual droplets of coffee gathering together, forming a suspended bead below the filter. Each bead then falls and cluster to form a cup of coffee. Watching the coffee drip is such a therapeutic experience. You can't be 'hasty', as Treebeard will call it. It would be pointless to force the coffee to flow down faster - you run the risk of ruining your coffee. In the hectic world where instant coffee is the norm, filtering your own coffee offers a respite from all the hustle and bustle of the city. That is what makes this coffee so attractive.

Hence, not using a glass cup was a mistake. You can't see the coffee drip.