Marianne Smallwood catches a Hanoi-style caffeine buzz
Driving down Nguyen Du Street, I pull up to Café Mai and hand my shinny blue bicycle over to a red uniformed youth who smiles and whisks it away to join the mass of motorbikes parked on the sidewalk. It's July in Hanoi and hot; a refuge is needed from the stickiness and heat that lingers even at night. Customers on the first floor gaze casually out onto the sidewalk, empty coffee glasses littering their small tables. Fish swim lazily around a tank in the middle of the room. Teenagers in Café Mai uniforms bustle around a bar crowded with containers of coffee, condensed milk, and unlabeled plastic jars holding the secret to why Café Mai is known for some of the best coffee in Hanoi. During my time in Hanoi, I have had countless cups of coffee in dozens of cafés - none have affected me as lingeringly as Café Mai. From a blended of ground coffee beans, chocolate, and sugar, the rich aroma wafts throughout the café and down the street.