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[coraa]

This is a coffee-related question.

jmpava and I go to this pho place called Than Brothers (really good!), and one of the things we always get is the coffee-with-condensed-milk. It comes out like this: a glass with condensed milk in the bottom, and then, at the top, a little metal thing containing the coffee grounds (how finely ground I don't know) and water. Slowly, over the course of maybe 5 mintues, the coffee drains out of the little metal thing (which has a perforated bottom) and into the cup. Then you remove the metal thing, stir, and drink. The little metal coffee-containing thing looks kind of like a top hat.

It makes really, really awesome coffee. (How awesome? jmpava orders it eagerly. That awesome.) Does anyone know what it's called? I'd love to order one for myself, but I don't know what to search for, and googling 'metal coffee hat' has not turned up anything useful (shocking!).

Comments

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Turkish coffee isn't expensive. It just requires the right size pot to make the sludge. You don't need on of those fancy-shmansy copper ones. The stainless steel variety is much more serviceable.
http://www.turkishtaste.com/coffepotmidium.html
And there are some great tutorials on the web.
The key is the pot and getting the right grind, but that's available at most supermarkets that have a large grinder (most of them even seem to have a turkish setting). Based on the cups of coffee I had in Turkey, the idea is to make it taste sweet and bitter at the same time. I think the Vietnamese coffee is very, very similar, and I prefer it. I have a turkish coffee pot that I use mostly to melt butter. I bought it at a middle-eastern deli that use to be here in Long Beach (ye gods I miss those cookies). I bet one of the middle-eastern places near where I work would have one if you are really interested.

[erinpie.livejournal.com]

Damn. You are full of good coffee info! Now I have two more coffee things I need to buy.

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

$6.45 if there's no added shipping isn't expensive, but I should really try turkish coffee before I spring for another gadget to take up space in the kitchen. I mean, I've already got a 12-cup drip machine, a plastic single-serving French press (that I think I'm going to dump for a real glass one pretty soon), and a travel coffee maker that makes condensed coffee perfect for mixed drinks, and I've got an espresso machine in storage... I think I have a problem. :)

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

Nah. That's just a good start.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking of getting an espresso machine, because yum, except I'm not sure if I'd get enough use out of it to merit the footprint it would take on my counterspace. Which is actually the motive behind why I wanted to get a Vietnamese coffee maker!

[coraa.livejournal.com]

"sweet and bitter at the same time" is exactly what I love about the Vietnamese coffee. I mean, the 'sweet' is helped by the fact that they serve it with frickin' sweetened condensed milk, but it has the perfect amount of coffee bitterness without any harsh or sour flavors. Mmmm.