Vietnamese coffee filter set

Preparing delicious Vietnamese coffee is quick, easy and doesn't require much clean-up afterward. The coffee filter is stainless steel and there are three parts (filter, screw-on damper, and lid). Simply place the filter on top of a cup, so it looks like a hat. Add 2-3 teaspoons of coffee to the filter, then screw on the damper so it's snug (not tight). Shake the filter a bit to settle the coffee. Fill up the cup about 1/3 with hot water then wait 20 seconds. Unscrew the damper 2 turns and fill the cup entirely with hot water. Place the lid on and wait a few minutes until the water has dripped though. Add a spoonful (or more) of sweetened condensed milk to the cup before or after you start the process. The final result is fabulous. Printed instructions come with the filter. The filter set is made in Taiwan of stainless steel, and quality is excellent--it will last for years. We offer Vietnamese coffee as well, Simply click Other products by ImportFood.com above to view our other products. Additional images, recipes and detailed description at ImportFood.com.
Customer Review: Unique, yet ubiquitous use
The Vietnamese styled coffee filter is really a nice bit of kit. It makes the often mundane act of drinking coffee into a ritual. While its origins are south-east Asian, its has a cosmopolitan use that is quite underrated. If you're like me and have several different blends of coffee in your home to choose from, its nice to offer guests their choice of coffee without having to make several pots to do so. You can alter the strength of the coffee by how tightly you compress the top filter in this apparatus. Thus enabling a "Lungo" or "ristretto" type of taste as you would find with espresso machines. This is however, not technically an espresso maker as espresso is made by forcing water through the ground coffee beans, while this apparatus uses gravity to distill the coffee. Many people who first experience these will be in specialty Vietnamese restaurants, offered as a traditional "Cà phê sua dá" (translated "Coffee milk ice"), but you should be able to find this nice little filter at many oriental specialty shops for anywhere between $3-$4. Don't worry about manufacturer, as I have seen several, and there seems to be absolutely no difference in quality. So don't pay a high price for this item. Often, the best things are the simplest, and it doesn't get any simpler than this. It should last you decades of use.
Customer Review: All I want is 1 cup of coffee
And this little gadget does the job much better than a Melitta style funnel and paper filter. If you grind your own you'll need to experiment a bit with how fine to grind and how tight to screw down the tamper, but after a few tries you should have the cup of coffee you want. I have 4 now. They are pretty cool for serving coffee when you have company. I don't think the online price is outrageous, but if you are lucky enough to live in a city with a Vietnamese market you can pick these up for $3 each.

Ever since kindergarten, I have been terrified of what modern-day society calls applesauce. Applesauce is that tasteless, fear-producing apple mixture that has the texture of cooked oatmeal with the taste of processed-apple flavorings. I guess they figured over at the plant that if they put them in the cute little containers and shoot the sauce full of fruit extracts (with fruits that shouldn't even be in applesauce), that kids will love them. I don't know if it was just me, but as a kid I would have much rather had an apple (and that's saying a lot for a little child).

What has happened to the real applesauce? You know, the kind with hearty goodness put in. It's the kind where you can actually taste the fruity chunks. I could bet you a million bucks (or maybe just ten) that the pioneer women would in no way recognize our processed sauce for their delicious traditional recipe. What they used for a scrumptious dessert we now only use as a child's side dish.

The saying "it's more American than apple pie" never held much weight with me. "It's more American than apple," is the phrase I like to use. That's because when I think of apples, I think of sunshiny apple orchards in beautiful American fields. Apples may not be primarily an American food, but we sure have done pretty amazing things with it. It's time we respect the apples and give them a proper recipe.

There is a point to all this madness. Let's do better by our apples and not make them into mush. Just look at the pioneers, they made them into a great applesauce that nowadays we would call more of a chopped up spiced, baked apple. Really, is that so wrong?

There is something special and delicious to a simple apple recipe with very few ingredients. It makes you feel warm and at home inside. I think this recipe could prove to some of those high tech chef's nowadays that there can be great taste in the simplicity and warmth of a basic recipe.

Food corporations could use some advice form the ladies of the pioneer, or for that matter from my little sister. Suddenly, the little girl who disliked "applesauce" has found that she loves the real applesauce. The one cooked in a pan. My greatest reward, as an adult, will be having the knowledge that when I have children they will be telling me how much the love applesauce.....and believe me, it won't be the school kid's variety.

"This Ain't No School Kid's Applesauce"*

Ingredients: 1 and 1/3 pound of Granny Smith apples cored and peeled plus cut into 1/8ths, tsp ground cinnamon, cup packed brown sugar, cup water, and 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg.

1) Boil the apples and salt in the water within a 3 quart saucepan. Stir occasionally. Then reduce the heat. Simmer for about ten minutes. Stir occasionally. Then reduce the heat to simmering. Simmer for about ten minutes. Stir occasionally as you break up the apples. Apples should be tender when done.

2) Sir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Boil. Continue boiling and stirring for about 1 minute. Cover with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator until ready to serve.

*Base of recipe from Betty Crocker and then I molded it from there.

Rachael Rizzo has been acting since she was nine years old. She uses her experience to write about what the things she loves mean to her (mostly movies and baking). She is twenty-three years old and resides in beautiful Oregon.