NYTimes: Finding Great Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City

[Paul Mooney]

Finding Great Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/travel/saigon-coffee-cafes.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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[David Brown]

Thank you, Paul.  This will be useful reference when I'm back in Saigon in the autumn, but really, cà phê sữa đá owns my heart.  db

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[Carl Robinson]

Any chance of giving us a Cut & Paste of this NYT article?  I am not a Subscriber nor do i want to give them my email address.

But from what I can read on the first page, I see his first is Cheo Reo which is just down the alley from where we stay with family in District Three and which I walk past every day on my way to my favourite cafes further away.  The atmosphere at Cheo Reo is hardly very welcoming, I must say, with not very comfortable-looking seating and I've heard stories of how rude the owner can be to customers. 

So maybe I don't need to see the rest of this guy's list.  

Cheers

Carl

[David Brown]

@ Carl Robinson

as it happened, I just did a c&p of the NYT story posted by Paul Mooney.   david brown

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/travel/saigon-coffee-cafes.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[Paul Mooney]

I can’t comment on all the places recommended here, but The Workshop is one of the best cafes in HCMC. Visited there several times at the suggestion of an American friend who is a veteran roaster and who has his own barista and roasting school in HCMC. Paul

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On Feb 24, 2024, at 3:51 PM, David Brown <nwo...@gmail.com> wrote:



@ Carl Robinson

as it happened, I just did a c&p of the NYT story posted by Paul Mooney.   david brown

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/travel/saigon-coffee-cafes.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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<Chic Saigon Coffee Shops NYT 022424.docx>

[Jack van Ommen]

JACK VAN OMMEN

S/V "FLEETWOOD"

"Around the World at 80 Years"

Home Port: Gig Harbor, Wa.  Call Sign : WDI-8975

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One of the pleasures I miss is the Cà Phê Sữa. So far I have not been able to find any Vietnamese Robusta coffee in my neighborhood. But when in Vancouver B.C. I was introduced to their Mr. Viet coffee.

But it still does not match what I drank in Vietnam. It may be burnt lighter for Western consumption. I am back to Kirkland's 3 lb cans of Dark Roast Arabica or Cafe Bustello Espresso. 

In the sixties the sweetened condensed milk used in Saigon was La Vache qui Rie and Friesche Vlag.

Jack

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Subject: Re: NYTimes: Finding Great Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City

 

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[Carl Robinson]

Thanks for posting the NYT piece, David Brown.   Yuk!  Coffee with Egg?!  

To each his own -- and that's not my Vietnam.  And everyone's Vietnam is different.  As a rule, I cringe at paying more than 30-35,000 Dong for a coffee and I'm often happy just with the atmosphere and - oh, yes! - Free WiFi.   The condensed milk, by the way, is to cut the bitterness of Robusta coffee, if not lots of sugar. 

Carl

 

   

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[David DeVoss]

When he was living in Saigon, John Gottberg Anderson (he now resides in Phnom Penh) did the coffee story for the East-West News Service.  https://www.eastwestnewsservice.com/vietnams-central-highlands-envision-becoming-a-global-coffee-capital/

EWNS beat the NYT by nine months.

David DeVoss

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David DeVoss

Editor & Senior Correspondent

East-West News Service

www.eastwestnewsservice.com

4159 Stansbury Ave

Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Tel: 818-789-2425

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[Carl Robinson]

orry, Jack, but 'Vache Qui Rit' was - and still is - a cheese spread and well-entrenched.  I unknow the other brand, but KD remembers only 'Ong Tho' (Prosperity God in the line-up of three) as the condensed milk of her childhood.  

 As for obtaining the product, there is plenty out there in the Asian Shop World, including instant for which Robusta is renowned.  We often bring back ground coffer from Vietnam and drink as 'Cafe filtre' but somehow it's just doesn't taste the same as sitting back there and watching that kaleidoscope world passing by.  

Cheers

Carl

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[Jack van Ommen]

JACK VAN OMMEN

S/V "FLEETWOOD"

"Around the World at 80 Years"

Home Port: Gig Harbor, Wa.  Call Sign : WDI-8975

Follow the adventure with regular blog posts at www.cometosea.us

cell phone USA 253-441-7204

 Nederland mobiel 031-649 676 419

Oooops. 

I used to spread sweetened condensed milk on my fresh warm baguette. But stirring cheese spread in my Cafe Sua would be a challenge.

In the early sixties Sua Ong Tho was still labeled with the Frisian Flag, to my recollection. Here is the rest of the story:

"Longevity Brand[edit]

In Vietnam, the U.S. and Canada the company is well known for its canned condensed milk product, Sữa Ông Thọ (Longevity Brand condensed milk), popularly used in Vietnamese iced coffee with milk (Cà phê sữa đá) drinks, and in various other Vietnamese desserts. Sữa Ông Thọ was mass-produced in the Saigon-Biên Hòa area and widely consumed in Vietnam, produced by Friesland Foods prior 1975. It was used in coffee, mixed with hot water to produce hot milk for babies and young children to drink (since fresh milk had to be imported and were thus expensive), dipped with French bread (Bánh mì) or in other dessert applications. After the 1975 Fall of Saigon, the factories manufacturing Sữa Ông Thọ, along with all other commercial and private properties were collectivized by the communists, and the facilities came under the state company Vinamilk, who continued to produce Sữa Ông Thọ condensed milk under the same name and used domestically and elsewhere in Indochina. Friesland Foods continued production of Sữa Ông Thọ – Longevity Brand after 1975 in the U.S. and Canada for the North American market, especially catering to Overseas Vietnamese consumers, and increasingly to Western consumers as the popularity of Vietnamese coffee and cuisine in general, increases. In North America, Longevity Brand – Sữa Ông Thọ is widely available in Asian supermarkets, and increasingly in conventional supermarkets."

Back in 1992 I met the Chinese-Vietnamese Licensee of Friesland Foods. His son married the niece of my Chinese wife.

Jack

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Subject: Re: NYTimes: Finding Great Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City

 

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[Carl Robinson]

Thank you for that information, Jack !   

'Ong Tho' remains a generic expression in Vietnam for any condensed milk, like 'Honda' for every motorbike. At hotels if you simply ask for 'sua' with your coffee, they'll reach for normal milk, not condensed milk.  Plus, the staff are always a bit surprised when foreigners want condensed milk in their coffee.

Cheers,

Carl

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