Vietnamese egg coffee — egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk whipped to a meringue-like foam, floated on hot phin-dripped robusta.
Invented in 1946 at Cafe Giang, Hanoi, by Nguyen Van Giang — a Sofitel Metropole bartender who substituted whipped egg yolk for unobtainable fresh milk during French-Indochina rationing. The shop, now run by his son Nguyen Tri Hoa, still operates at 39 Nguyen Huu Huan in the Old Quarter.
Cafe Giang's recipe stayed secret for 60+ years until Hoa published it in 2017. Anthony Bourdain ordered one on Parts Unknown season 8 (2016). Hanoi's Cafe Dinh, opened by Giang's daughter, serves a version many locals prefer.
Served in a small glass set inside a bowl of hot water to keep it warm. Yellow foam cap an inch thick, hot black coffee underneath. Spoon through both layers; the foam tastes of warm tiramisu, the coffee bitter and dark beneath.
Yolks (no whites) whipped with sweetened condensed milk and a splash of hot coffee for 5+ minutes until pale, thick, and tripled in volume. Density less than coffee, so it floats. The hot coffee gently cooks the yolk, killing salmonella risk and stabilizing the foam.
Variations
Cafe Giang's original is hot; Cafe Dinh runs both hot and iced — iced version sets the foam in the cold and tastes more like ice cream. Hue's Coffee Club serves an egg-cocoa hybrid; Saigon hipster cafes do matcha-egg.
On the Palate
Where Ca Phe Trung sits in the Vietnamese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 1How it's made
4 steps · 6 min active + 6 min waiting
- 16 min
Brew 30 g coarse robusta in a Vietnamese phin filter with 100 ml just-boiled water.
- 24 min
Separately whisk 2 egg yolks + 30 ml sweetened condensed milk to a thick meringue-like foam.
Watch outWhip the yolks and condensed milk a full five minutes until pale, glossy and tripled — stop early and the foam is thin and slips under the coffee instead of floating.
- 31 min
Pour hot coffee into a glass; spoon the egg foam on top.
Watch outSpoon the foam gently onto hot coffee so it rides on top as a fluffy cap — the coffee's heat also cooks the yolk just enough to firm the foam.
- 41 min
Serve hot in a small cup placed in a bowl of warm water to maintain temperature.
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