soulful food. I do know how to whip up
my own brunches and make my own
coffee. But the thought of being out of
the house, served by friendly service
staff, sipping freshly roasted Americano
and inhaling (I mean chewing on)
hot-off-the-griddle flapjacks doused in
maple syrup seduces me to no end.”
Enormous carrot cakes lavished
with cream cheese frosting; pancakes
piled high; crusty sandwiches
stuffed full with rocket and Spanish
ham or a gently bubbling skillet
of steak and eggs – you can have
them all if you have the appetite.
It’s not far from Singapore’s modern
metropolis to the outlying islands of
Indonesia, a country whose history
is steeped in coffee. But coffee is
not an indigenous crop here, it was
introduce by the Dutch in the 1600s.
The Arabica seedlings are said to
have come from Sri Lanka and the
crops flourished under Indonesia’s
favourable weather conditions.
Today 90 per cent of Indonesia’s
coffee crop is grown on small farms
across the country. Indonesia has
also become famous for kopi luwak,
collected from the droppings of a wild
civet like cat called a luwak, a rare
The Walk
dosed with sugar or if you prefer
your coffee white it will be kopi susu,
lightened with condensed milk.
It’s a similar story in Vietnam
where dense, treacly-thick coffee
drips through a silver filter as you sit
patiently waiting for the dark liquid to
pool with the condensed milk below.
Hai phong City
Hai Phong, whose name means “coastal defense” in lyrical Vietnamese,
remains as multinational and bustling since it was established in the
1500s, as a maritime centre and port. Thanks to French influence, and a
little bit of everything else, the café culture is unique
(continued on page 32)
Clockwise from right: Granola is
elevated to a whole new level at
Kaffeine Café in London; Brother Baba
Budan Café in Little Bourke Street,
Melbourne is a great place for a catch
up; truffle fries from Singapore’s
Symmetry Café are welcome at any
time of the day Opposite: Vietnam is
renowned for its café cuture, as you
can discover with a walk through the
heart of Hai Phong’s coffee scene
1
Nam Phuong Restaurant
12 Tran Phu Street.
Head north to the Nam
Phuong Restaurant, where
Hai Phong’s best traditional and western fare
is created. It’s a curious,
gastronomical affair, and
you’ll find every reason
to immerse yourself in its
Old Hollywood ambience.
30 Ascott LIVING
Forget everything you
learned about rules on
the road, for there are
none whatsoever in
Hai Phong City. Watch
nervously as unflinching
pedestrians weave in and
out of endless scooter
streams in a brocade
of orderly chaos. Our
advice is simple: when
in Hai Phong, do as
the Vietnamese do to
get to the other side.
5
3
4
1
2
2
Black’N More Coffee
45 Tran Phu. For a post
lunch stop, call in to this
new-age hipster café
furnished with cottagestyle wooden tables
and matching cream
coloured chairs. This
café serves traditional
coffee with contemporary, tasteful latte art.
Photos: Visit Victoria (Baba Budan Cafe); Courtesy of Kaffeine (Granola)
Illustration: Antoine Corbineau
3
find and a coffee connoisseur’s dream.
Although at US$200-400 a kilogramme,
for many it remains just a dream.
Locally coffee can be enjoyed at a
small roadside café, and you’ll usually
find kopi tubruk served in a glass. In
these small cafés (called warungs)
you’ll often find black coffee liberally
Eyes on
the road!
Phono Box
79 Dien Bien Phu. This
café, literally housed
as a jukebox in a hole
in the wall, is the place
to lounge over a cup of
ca phe da (iced coffee) accompanied by
nostalgic ballads. Serving
coffee in the afternoons,
and alcohol at night,
Phono Box knows exactly
what its valued patrons
crave. It never sleeps.
4
Hai Phong Museum
Dien Bien Phu Coated in
a rusty tint of red, this
monument commands a
stature of importance and
presidency. For the firsttime visitor to Vietnam
and Hai Phong, the museum provides a good guide
to a history of the land.
6
7
5
Central View
Coffee Lounge
4th Floor, Central Tower.
True to its name, this
coffee lounge overlooks
Central Park and Tam
Bac Lake and offers a
bird’s eye view of the
city. If you’re having
difficulty communicating
with locals, don’t fret—
Central View prides
itself on its international,
polyglot staff.
6
Haiphong Opera HouseStatue of Madam Le
Chan-Tam Bac Lake
65 Hoang Van Thu Street
The pulse of Hai Phong
is most distinctive in
the Opera House area
where art and history
come alive. This cultural
epicentre stands as a
memory of a glorious
past juxtaposed against a
new, burgeoning world.
8
7
Trung Nguyen Coffee
139 Dinh Tien Hoang
Q. Hong Bang. Any trip to
Vietnam will be incomplete without having a
cuppa from Trung Nguyen
Coffee, the Starbucks of
Vietnam. If you haven’t
had Trung Nguyen, you
can expect a consistent
flavour where tradition
meets modernity. If you
have, skip this stop.
8
Secret Garden Café
9/231 Van Cao
This café is everything
you imagine it would look
like in Frances Burnett’s
novel of the same name,
and more. With its wide
selection of sweet pastries
and cakes, you'll be hard
pressed to stop at just
one. Make sure you take
that 20-minute stroll
back to the Somerset.
The scarcity of fresh milk
in 19th-century Vietnam
compelled French colonists
to use creamy condensed
milk to perpetuate their café
au lait affair, conceiving
Vietnam’s now-renowned cà
phê phin or coffee brewed
and filtered by a phin (metal
filter), then sweetened.
Ascott LIVING 31