Caphé

The first morning in Saigon, I met Qué from Eden Cafe, who had promised to show me around with her sister. About a half-hour into the "tour" we stopped for coffee at Trung Nguyen Cafe and ended up talking most of the morning, rather than looking around. Trung Nguyen , it seems, is a sort-of Vietnamese Starbucks, and the #1 preferred coffee brand of the Vietnamese. According to my Lonely Planet, Trung Nguyen serves "chon", coffee beans fed to weasels and then later collected from their excrement for brewing. True or not, it was the best coffee I drank in Vietnam.

That said, all the coffee I drank in Vietnam was outstanding. The Vietnamese, as do I, like their coffee ridiculously strong. I never saw it brewed in a pot, they usually bring a small metal filter (like a mini-French Press) right to your table, and its always served in glasses rather than cups. I liked to watch the sludge drip from the filter into the small glass, it reminded me of an oil leak from a car engine. The preferred way to drink it is on ice with a healthy dose of condensed milk. Delicious during the hot part of the afternoon, but in the morning I liked to drink it hot and black. Like a quadruple espresso but without any bitterness, and just the slightest bit sweet.

On any sidewalk at any time of day, you can see men, and sometimes women, sitting on small plastic chairs around a small plastic table drinking ice coffees. Sometimes they are just chatting and sometimes they are huddled around a gameboard that I believe is Chinese Chess. It reminded me of Panama a bit, to watch people take an extended coffee break in the afternoon, or even in the morning, to enjoy the day and the company of friends.