It's time to diversify.
My narrow-minded automatic pilot order of a cafe den da (iced black coffee) does serve my rather selfish purpose, giving me a jolt of the tingles, setting me up for a productive couple of hours, whatever I may be doing. But there are so many more options in Hanoi's caffeine dens, not all of them containing the world's most common performance-enhancing drug.
However, I'm not going to upset my own applecart completely. There is no way I'm going to forego my black liquid medication.
That'd be nuts!
In an attempt to widen the scope of my cafe experiences in Hanoi, though, I will promise to occasionally follow my coffee with a second beverage. I will wet my whistle with other fluids, mostly unfamiliar ones. It might be fun. It could be informative. It may challenge my very existence. These drinks could indeed react with the coffee, setting off a curdling centrifuge around and around the lining of my stomach!
Nevertheless, let me start. Chanh muoi literally translates as lemon salt, though in Vietnam wherever you see lemon, read lime. On a drinks menu, it means salty lemonade.
Limes are pickled in a preserving process not dissimilar to that in Middle Eastern cuisine. Packed into jars with salt and left until a briney liquid covers them, the whole limes lose their lush green colour but gain an intensely lemony flavour. Of course this process occurs long before I place my order.
At the cafe, a lime is popped into a glass along with a slug of brine and sometimes sugar. The lemony flavour is released by stabbing at the lime with a spoon until it is suitably mangled and messy. The final step involves filling the glass with water and lots of ice.
I dig the lemon. I don't dig the salt, which makes the drink strangely syrupy, as if some chemistry experiment has occurred in the glass. Cold and salty in a drink does not float my boat, I'm afraid.
Hi, I've been enjoying your blog for a while now. I visited Vietnam over a year ago and loved every minute of it, especially the Vietnamese coffee, including the iced version. I'm still drinking it now, but much of the smell and aroma has disappeared. I guess you have to be in Vietnam to enjoy it at its best!
When its potent, this stuff gives a jolt of energy unmatched by all other coffees...I think it surely helps explain how the Vietnamese can be so productive at all hours of the day.
: )
Posted by: Riz | 08 April 2009 at 04:56 PM
Drinking chanh muoi, strangely, makes me feel like i'm drinking a glass full of warm saliva.
Not my thing, either.
Posted by: Jonathan | 09 April 2009 at 06:47 AM
That's exactly the simile I was after, Jonathan!
Exactly!
Yes, Riz, the coffee definitely gets the heart rate up!
Posted by: Sticky | 09 April 2009 at 07:38 AM
Been to Vietnam in 2007, what i can say ~ Vietnamese really creative with Food Recipes and Food Presentation always the most beautiful!
Posted by: bigfish_chin | 09 April 2009 at 09:18 PM
I'm not sure about the weird brining liquid thing, but when I travel in India I have positive cravings for the salty lemonade they sell there. It's pretty much as it sounds - no sugar, just lime juice, sparkling water and a pinch of salt. It can be undrinkable if too much salt is added, but with just a pinch it is the most refreshing drink for a hot climate ever. I far prefer it to the sweet lemonade, which I ind cloying in the heat.
I was in Thailand this winter and they had sweet/salty lemonade, which I didn't like nearly as much. It kind of had that sliminess that you refer to. I think it's the sugar syrup that does it maybe. Not sure. I'm sticking with the plain salty from now on.
Posted by: Diane | 10 April 2009 at 08:40 PM
Diane - the Indian variation sounds perfect. I do understand the salt and hot climate thing...just think it's overdone with the chanh muoi
Posted by: Sticky | 12 April 2009 at 09:34 PM
It is, however, good for the old rehydration -- or so an 80 year old badminton playing man told me once. Another not particularly tasty but Vietnamese drink that I drink, especially in summer, is bot san da (specifying NO Sugar, with lots of lemon) as it it supposedly cools your blood -- or so some 90 year old woman told me once... -- so it's sort of like the Yin to your ca phe den da-Yang, leaving you to experience a perfect happy medium... in theory.
Posted by: Teddy | 13 April 2009 at 10:22 AM
Yes the theories, the theories, Teddy, so many food and drink theories!!!
I tried the white powder drink years back and I think I objected to the sedimenty nature of it...but it will be in the drinks list one of these days...thanks for reminding me.
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