Egg Coffee at Café Giảng

Café Giảng is where egg coffee was invented — a tiny, unassuming café on Nguyễn Hữu Huân street in the Old Quarter where Nguyễn Văn Giảng created cà phê trứng in 1946 by whipping egg yolk with condensed milk and Vietnamese coffee when fresh milk was scarce during the First Indochina War. The drink — a thick, custard-like foam over strong, dark coffee — has become Hanoi's signature beverage and is now served in cafés across the city, but Giảng remains the original and arguably the best.

The café is on the second floor of a narrow building (look for the small sign and the steep staircase), and the seating — tiny stools and tables in rooms that overlook the street — provides the intimate, improvised atmosphere that defines Hanoi's café culture. The egg coffee arrives in a small cup set in a bowl of hot water (to keep it warm), and the experience of cracking through the sweet, frothy egg layer to reach the dark, bitter coffee below is one of those sensory experiences that makes Hanoi's food culture unique.

Giảng's grandson now runs the café, making it a three-generation family business, and the consistency of the recipe (Giảng egg coffee uses only fresh egg yolk, condensed milk, sugar, and Vietnamese drip coffee, with no butter or cheese as some newer recipes add) is guarded with the kind of quiet proprietary pride that characterises Hanoi's food artisans. The café is a 2-minute walk from Hoàn Kiếm Lake and is best visited in the afternoon, when the Old Quarter's pace slows and the combination of strong coffee and the street view from the tiny windows creates a moment of stillness in the city's perpetual motion.