COFFEE ANYONE?
If there’s anything I like about Hanoi is their taste in coffee. ^_^ Every street has a café. One particular coffee shop caught my attention and it’s the Trung Nguyen Café.  Their coffee is not really something worth talking about, frankly it tastes like Nescafe.  Plus their choices range only from brewed coffee, three flavored coffee, and coffee latte. But what made them quite a sensation are two things:

One, they’re EVERYWHERE. They’re just as common as Mcdonalds would be to us.  I first saw 4 branches in Ho Chi Minh then more so in Hanoi. I even found them in Ha Long Bay and in the island of Cat Ba.

Two, they’ve got aircon! Yes, most café’s and restaurants have one thing in common, no air conditioning. Most of them were open air patios and verandas. Maybe they find this a cost effective tactic. Unfortunately for people like me, I rather drink my hot coffee
in the confines of an really cool room. With the already sweltering
atmosphere, drinking anything hot would be insane.

Coffee is served very differently here. In the local café’s they are not served in cups but in glasses. It could lead to a problem if the coffee being served gets too hot to handle, er, without a handle. But I guess I’ll have to surrender to the idea that when in Rome… do what the Romans do.

Back in Cat Ba, me and a couple of my embassy friends decided to finish our late evening adventures (we went karaoke that night) to have a cup of coffee in one of the outdoor café’s by the harbor. The “outdoor” café just happens to be a small area with a bunch of table and chairs by the pier. I really didn’t mind the ambience because the sea wind was
blowing and I felt a cup of coffee would really make my day. Coffee was brewed using a regular filter but served in a glass. Most cups are reserved for tea. So technically, I had a glass of coffee, but it was the most delicious glass I ever had. ^_^ This particular coffee was a special blend, according to my embassy friend Mr.Nam (a Vietnamese). It smelled so good I decided that I’m going to buy a pack of these when I
get back to Hanoi. He also told me that there is a very special coffee in Vietnam who’s brewing technique makes it quite unique. In the north there are several species of monkey-like mammals. They live in coffee plantations, eating large numbers of coffee berries in their diet. The workers trod to the animal’s habitat to collect their, well, guano (also known as shit/crap to the unenlightened) to roast and grind them to powder. I guess by this time you’ll have probably guessed the rest of the process. Looking at my coffee glass, I decided to close my eyes and take that one final gulp before I go to sleep. Yuck.