MS Investigates: Vietnamese kopi stalls in hawker centres
When Singaporeans think of coffee joints, there are at least two common types: kopitiams and cafés.
The coffee we get at the former is commonly referred to as Nanyang coffee — which some have referred to as a “heart attack in a plastic bag”.
It is cheap, incredibly caffeine-laden, and its sweetness can be tailored to one’s liking by saying ‘siew dai’ (less sweet) or ‘gah dai’ (sweeter).
A less common, but growing phenomenon is Vietnamese drip coffee, which through its speciality coffee beans gives the coffee a robust, flavourful taste.
Source: Eat, Little Bird. Image for illustration purposes only.
Like Nanyang coffee, condensed milk is often used, and a Vietnamese iced coffee on a hot day is just what one needs for a good pick-me-up.
The problem? Finding a good, affordable Vietnamese coffee at a hawker stall has been tough, until now.
Thanks to the Vietnamese community in Singapore, as well as some enterprising Singaporeans who wish to bring the coffee to more locals, we are able to find a handful of affordable Vietnamese coffee stalls here.
Popular coffee spot serves Vietnamese coffee and banh mi
When MS News visited Creative Coffee & Toast in Marine Parade Food Centre, there was still a small queue even at the off-peak hour of 4pm.
Source: Google Maps
According to an employee at the stall, they use a secret blend of Singapore and Vietnam coffee beans to achieve a unique taste.
This is what keeps customers coming back for more, especially in the morning.
“Why do people come to queue in the morning? Try our coffee and you’ll know why,” the employee, who’s worked at the stall for over a year, said with a laugh.
Besides its popular coffee options, Creative Coffee & Toast also offers banh mi — a baguette filled with meats and other fillings.
Vietnamese coffee culture is robust, says owner of Golden Mile coffee stall
Nestled in the basement of Golden Mile Food Centre is Xing Wang Coffee & Tea, where an iced drip coffee costs S$2.50 while a ‘layers coffee’ — which includes condensed milk — costs S$3.
The price is highly competitive compared to many cafés that serve Vietnamese cuisine.
Like the other stalls we visited, it was manned by Vietnamese staff.
The owner, who wished to be known only as Mr Tan, told MS News he developed a passion for Vietnamese coffee during his frequent visits to the country over the years.
Mr Tan was previously in the construction industry while his wife, who’s Vietnamese, had experience working at a kopitiam drinks stall before being a homemaker.
So when she wanted to work after years of being a stay-at-home mum, Mr Tan opened a hawker stall towards the end of 2023 after consulting friends.
“My wife has experience working in a drinks stall, so a drinks stall made sense when she wanted to work,” Mr Tan said.
Her past experience also means that the stall can sell traditional Nanyang kopi along with the Vietnamese version.
To Mr Tan, Vietnamese coffee has a robust flavour. He also noted that Vietnam has a strong coffee-drinking culture.
To preserve its authenticity, Mr Tan uses Vietnamese coffee grounds from the highlands.
He also says that running the business remains affordable since the stall is at a hawker centre.
We’ve only recently raised the price by 50 cents as our supplies have risen in costs, and we couldn’t afford to keep prices as they were.
Regardless, he believes his Vietnamese coffee is still reasonably priced, noting: “I don’t think you can find Vietnamese coffee at this price elsewhere in Singapore.”
Footfall from both tourists and locals is high at hawker centres
When Mr Tan’s wife said she wished to work, he “scrambled” to find a spot in a hawker centre, which he prefers as there is high footfall from tourists who are more likely to enjoy Vietnamese coffee.
Business has been improving steadily since he opened the stall, Mr Tan revealed, adding that more locals are also developing a taste for Vietnamese coffee.
“We’re the first stall at this hawker centre to sell this coffee, so those who’ve tried it are likely to come back,” he said.
Many of his customers are regulars, and he can “guarantee” that those who’ve tried it will become regulars too.
Vietnamese salted coffee is a rare find in Singapore
Though some locals will be familiar with the standard filter-made Vietnamese coffee, ca phe muoi — salted coffee — is much less commonly known.
Made out of condensed milk, coffee, and salted cream, the salt serves to neutralise the bitterness of the coffee. It’s an intriguing mix that blends salty, sweet, and bitter elements, according to one reviewer.
However, MS News managed to find a stall at Mayflower Food Centre that sells the beverage.
May’s Coffee and Bread, located next to a stall selling Vietnamese cuisine, mainly sells Nanyang coffee. However, setting it apart is its salted coffee, which is a rare sight here, let alone in a hawker centre.
The owner, May, opened the stall last August next to her friend’s stall “as it is what she knows”, having worked at coffee shops for nearly six years.
“Vietnamese coffee is trendy these days, so I decided to introduce salted coffee to the menu and let Singaporeans try it out,” she said.
However, the standard Vietnamese drip coffee takes a long time to prepare and May doesn’t have it on her menu.
She explained: “Singaporeans are under a lot of stress and can’t afford to wait that long for Vietnamese coffee, so we sell salted coffee which is faster to prepare instead.”
Talking to May made us realise as well that our coffee-drinking culture is shaped by where we live.
While Vietnamese coffee can be a ‘ritual’ to prepare as it takes several minutes, May does not sell the traditional drip coffee as many Singaporeans want their coffee fast.
Meanwhile, Nanyang coffee is quick to prepare and cheap to boot. Perhaps that’s why it endures at our coffee shops islandwide.
Understanding why more stalls are selling Vietnamese coffee
The hawker centres in Singapore are definitely our pride and joy and where many of us get our staple food.
But it’s also been interesting to watch the blending of cultures that have formed within these communities.
Once a bastion of traditional street food from around the time of Singapore’s independence, hawker centres have grown to accommodate cuisines from around the world, aided by the migrant workers who’ve come here in search of a better life.
A great by-product of this is that we can now find Vietnamese coffee, which is still a novelty here, right in our hawker centres at an affordable price.
A common trend is that the staff at these Vietnamese stalls tend to be Mandarin-speaking.
Several Vietnamese staff MS News spoke to said they picked up the language over the years while working in Singapore as many of their older patrons speak Mandarin or dialects.
An increasing number of coffee shops also have staff of Vietnamese origin.
Marriages between Singaporeans and foreigners may be a cause — inter-ethnic marriages accounted for 16.4% of all registered marriages in 2023, according to Singstat.
48.5% of these inter-ethnic marriages comprised a Chinese groom and brides from ‘Other’ ethnic groups.
These can include brides from Thailand, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries.
It’s a good time to reflect on how Singapore’s melting pot of cultures isn’t limited to the Chinese-Malay-Indian-Other paradigm many of us will have been taught in schools.
That we are in close proximity to so many other countries in a mere few hours via a short plane ride helps too.
Also read: 14-Year-Old Boy Helps Out At Mother’s Toa Payoh Drinks Stall After School, Gives Mum A Break
14-Year-Old Boy Helps Out At Mother’s Toa Payoh Drinks Stall After School, Gives Mum A Break
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Featured image by MS News.
