Let's chat over coffee at the beginning of the year.

Article by: Phan Cac Truc

Photos: Tron Le

Before the French introduced filter coffee, Saigonese people brewed it using a Chinese-style filter. During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, everyone in Saigon enjoyed a delicious breakfast of filter coffee dipped in fried dough sticks. Children would often sit nearby, hoping to get a few sips from the adults. That few-dong cup of coffee represented a childhood of mischievous antics and a youth filled with hope for contributing to the nation.

To make a rich, strong cup of coffee brewed in a tin filter, finely ground coffee is placed in the filter, dipped into a pot of boiling water heated over a wood-fired stove, stirred to create foam, and then left to steep before being poured into a teapot. The darker the filter, the stronger the coffee. The pot must be earthenware to preserve the pure aroma of the coffee. Many jokingly call this a handcrafted "stewed" coffee, and to make a truly delicious "stewed" coffee, you need high-quality coffee.

Nowadays, not many young people come to enjoy filter coffee anymore, partly because filter coffee is more cumbersome and involves more steps than filter coffee. But those children from back then, now with graying hair, still come to the shop every day to wait for their cup of coffee, read the newspaper they bought from the small stall nearby, and enjoy the fragrant aroma of coffee in the Saigon atmosphere of 1954.

It seems that the atmosphere of Saigon remained stagnant at that stage. Back then, young people were somewhat impulsive, always full of ideals and hopes. They either went to the battlefield or were busy with rallies, all for their ideals.

Back then, my grandparents' love story didn't have Instagram or Facebook; we communicated through carefully written, silent letters."Let's love each other so that we forget the days and months..."

(Trinh Cong Son)

The Thanh