DANANG, VIETNAM – We don’t normally have beer for breakfast. But, as we’ve said before on these pages, whenever we walk out our apartment door, we never really know what to expect.
We stopped for breakfast after our morning swim
After our usual morning swim one day last week, we decided to have breakfast at a recently opened restaurant where we’d had dinner with friends a few nights before.
Melanie and I each ordered a bowl of My Quang, a local Vietnamese dish made with fresh rice noodles, thin-sliced or minced meat, hard-boiled egg, and an assortment of sprouts and greens, all swimming in a rich savory broth.
The version served up by this restaurant also featured a large pink cooked shrimp with the shell (and legs) still on. And the boiled egg was actually two small eggs (quail? pigeon?)
To accompany our food we also ordered two cups of cappuccino.
The cook came out to greet us
Partway through our meal the cook came out front to greet us. She remembered us from our previous visit when our group of four had sampled several different menu items along with a couple of cocktails.
That evening included a lively interaction with the staff, several group photos and a clumsy attempt at sharing the event on Facebook.
We rated our breakfast at least as good as our previous dinner and assured her we would be back again and would tell more friends.
A few minutes later one of the staff appeared at our table with two small cups of egg coffee on a tray… compliments of “my boss.”
If you’ve never had egg coffee, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Visions of slimy raw eggs oozed through my brain
When I first heard the name – egg coffee – I had visions of a scene from the first “Rocky” movie, where the Sylvester Stallone character cracks several raw eggs into a pitcher of liquid and gulps down the slimy concoction. Not very appetizing.
The actual coffee drink, on the other hand, is much more pleasant.
The cup is filled to the brim with a frothy yellow blend of egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk and a small amount of strong dark coffee. Its consistency (and taste) is somewhere between thick, fresh eggnog and sweetened custard pudding.
Lurking deep below the sweet golden topping is a bitter shot (or two) of strong black espresso.
It’s more like a dessert… with a caffeine kick
It’s a match made in paradise. A delicious dessert and a high octane energy drink rolled into one.
As if this tasty (and totally unexpected) treat wasn’t enough, our new friend reappeared at our table just as we were finishing up our coffees.
This time his tray held an old-fashioned soda fountain-type glass filled with the same yellow stuff from the egg coffee. There was also a can of cold beer.
Mind you, it was just now around 11 a.m., a bit early for me to start drinking beer.
We tried to wave him off, telling him we were already full from our breakfast, our cappuccino and the two demitasse cups of egg coffee.
But he was insistent. “My boss wants you to try it. It’s a drink from Hanoi.”
Putting aside our objections, now we were curious.
“So, we mix the beer with the yellow drink?” I asked.
“Yes,” came the reply.
I remembered a not-so-tasty drink from my college days
My memory flashed back to a time in my college years when I tried making an ice cream float with beer instead of soda pop. That experiment was not exactly a success.
But that was then, and this was now. And besides… the boss insisted.
I poured some beer into the glass until it foamed up through the yellow cream. I swirled it around a bit and took a sip…
“Not bad,” I announced to Melanie, and handed her the glass. “The bitterness of the hops adds a very different flavor to the sweet egg foam.”
“Interesting,” she said. “Not at all what I would have expected.”
We added more beer to the glass, swirled it into the mix and passed the drink back and forth until we had slurped down the last sweet hoppy drops.
So there we were… fed, caffeinated, treated to dessert and already with a beer under our belts… and it wasn’t even noon yet.
We’ve said it before, and no doubt will again. When we step out the door in Vietnam, we never know what to expect!
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For more about our adventures with beer “over there,” check out these other posts: Desperately seeking ‘real’ Scotch ale, Quest for Beer-Hanoi edition
Sounds like you are being treated well. These drinks sound interesting. You make them sound delicious.
Try beer floats with a good stout. Friends turned us on to them. A bit different but good.
Hey Carol, Yes, life is good here in Vietnam. I’ll have to give the stout float a try. When I tried it back in college I’m sure I was using something like Bud or some other cheap swill.