Egg coffee! At first, I thought they didn’t have me fooled, and that Vietnamese egg coffee would just use a whipped egg white on top, which is not so strange, as a meringue topping is a common thing in desserts. Not so fast, as this drink is actually made with an egg yolk, which complicates things on many different levels. Developed in 1946 at one of Hanoi’s top hotels, the Sofitel Legend Metropole, this ingenious recipe was, like so many inventions, born out of necessity. The country was experiencing severe milk shortages due to the French or First Indochina War, but the famous Vietnamese coffee still had to be served.…

Apsaras are considered to be heavenly celestial beings, or angels, in Khmer mythology. They are omnipresent in Khmer temples, and are known for their grace, beauty and elegance. Apsara dance is peformed by several ornately dressed dancers, and is particularly known for its intricate hand gestures, characterized by dramatic bends in the wrist of the performer, and complicated combinations of fingers to symbolize feelings, objects and events through a flowing gestural storytelling.