Vietnam, Fall 2023 ~ Create

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. The original recipe combined whipped egg yolk and rice wine, but now it is simplified with sweetened condensed milk instead. The sweet, rich froth at the top of dark black coffee is such a great treat, even for a non-coffee drinker like myself.

I liked this recipe that comes with a video as well: Vietnamese Egg Coffee (australianeggs.org.au)