-^-for posterity-^-

i sat down at my favorite coffee shop yesterday, quan thu, and ordered myself up a nice cup of vietnamese joe. a small, glass cup is brought to the table accompanied with a larger glass full of ice, a long spoon, a bowl full of sugar and a metal apparatus used to make the coffee.

the metal gizmo is made out of three separate pieces. the bottom piece is large enough to fit over the mouth of the small glass. its bottom is lowered a bit and acts as a filter. the middle section has another filter in it full of coffee grounds. a shot of hot water is poured over the grounds. the third part is simply a tin lid.

the coffee drips slowly. it takes about five minutes for one cup to fill. when it’s full, tradition dictates that you must remove the metal dripper and pour sugar relentlessly into the black syrup. once the sugar is poured in and stirred, (usually about four scoops, i normally take two) you dump the coffee over the ice and stir. stirring is normally accomplished with the long spoon. it is shifted up and down repeatedly and quickly mixing the coffee with the ice and making a wonderful clinking noise.

well, i was sitting and enjoying my cup of coffee and a good book when two younger vietnamese men decided to sit down at my table. i don’t think there were other tables available and it’s kind of customary to sit at a table if there are empty seats. they sat, stared, made comments about my nose and giggled. i couldn’t concentrate on my book anymore and my coffee was finished so i asked for the bill.

today jack and i went for coffee again. once again we were accompanied by strangers. two girls sat down at our table and tried to have a conversation with us. it seemed like they spoke fairly good english at first but that quickly refuted. we stumbled through a conversation, mostly in english (didn’t really feel like speaking vietnamese) and ended our coffee break early.

nothing like a group of strangers sitting down at your table and interrupting your conversation. it makes everything a bit awkward and you always end up looking for the bill a bit early. coffee’s good but the company’s terrible.