Be Bold!
Being bold means not being afraid to try things that tickle your curiosity. Some things, no matter how interesting, just sound like a bad idea. I mean a really bad idea. For example; Vietnamese egg beer or, as I like to call it, the beer milkshake.
I’m not the first person to have the idea of a beer milkshake stuck in the imagination. In Cannery Row, John Steinbeck has his protagonist, Doc, obsess about the concept of a beer milkshake after a friend makes a good-natured joke about it.
“He wondered what a beer milk shake would taste like. The idea gagged him a bit but he couldn’t let it alone. It cropped up every time he had a glass of beer. Would it curdle like milk? Would you add sugar? … Once the thing got into your head you couldn’t forget it.
Like Doc, I was never comfortable experimenting with an actual beer milkshake. For Doc, it was just an off-hand comment by a friend that seeded the thought. For me, it was literary curiosity seeded by Cannery Row Neither Doc, nor I ever took the idea of a beer milkshake seriously, yet the idea would not purge.
Neither Doc nor I ever talked about it. We knew people who didn’t share the bent of our thoughts would be likely to make things uncomfortable and awkward if we ever actually experimented with it.
“He finished his sandwich and paid Herman. He purposely didn’t look at the milk shake machines lined up so shiny against the back wall. If a man ordered a beer milk shake, he thought, he’d better do it in a town where he wasn’t known.”
And there was the key. We are more adventurous when we travel. We can be bold when we travel and try foods or activities we might normally find embarrassing, unflattering, or socially uncomfortable. So when Doc is out of town, he visits a diner and decides it’s time to ask for the beer milkshake.
Doc walked angrily to the counter of the stand.
The waitress, a blond beauty with just the hint of a goiter, smiled at him. ‘What’ll it be?’
‘Beer milk shake,’ said Doc.
‘What?’
Well here it was and what the hell. Might just as well get it over with now as some time later.
The blond asked, ‘Are you kidding?’
Doc knew wearily that he couldn’t explain, couldn’t tell the truth. ‘I’ve got a bladder complaint,’ he said. ‘Bipalychaetorsonechtomy the doctors call it. I’m supposed to drink a beer milk shake. Doctor’s orders.’
The blonde smiled reassuringly. ‘Oh! I thought you were kidding,’ she said archly. ‘You tell me how to make it. I didn’t know you was sick.’
‘Very sick,’ said Doc, ‘and due to be sicker. Put in some milk, and add half a bottle of beer. Give me the other half in a glass — no sugar in the milk shake.”
And that’s where he went wrong! As it turns out, you do want sugar!
I had my opportunity to try Vietnamese egg beer while on a street food tour in Hanoi. Tu Cong Van is an expert in the Hanoi food scene. One of our stops was a delightful sidewalk cafe were we sat on squat-stools and had our choice of Vietnamese egg beer or egg coffee. By partnering with another adventurous traveler, we contrived to have both by each ordering one and sharing.
It turns out Vietnamese egg-beer has taken the beer milkshake concept to a gourmet level. It starts with a generous tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk in the bottom of a beer mug. Then you mix in one egg yolk. This makes a sticky, custard-like eggnog substance. Then you pour fresh beer over it.
If beer is sometimes called “bread in a bottle” all by itself, then Vietnamese egg-beer adds protein and sugar for a complete meal-in-a-glass (including desert!)
Doc’s beer milkshake, like many things you read in John Steinbeck novels, was anticlimactic. But you can expect that sort of let-down from Steinbeck.
“When she served it, he tasted it wryly. And it wasn’t so bad — it just tasted like stale beer and milk.”
But the Vietnamese egg beer version of a beer milkshake is startlingly good! It is a frothy, pale mug of intoxicating fresh sweetness! As you see, I have made it successfully at home. But it will never be as good as it was sitting there on a tiny stool next to a busy Hanoi street surrounded by smiling strangers sharing a beer milkshake.
NOTE: use appropriate precautions when working with raw egg yolk. While the heat of the coffee tends to cook the yolk a little in the coffee version, the beer version remains completely raw. When I made it at home, I used pasteurized eggs. I think I would feel perfectly comfortable using my sister’s fresh-from-the-coup organic eggs raw but use your own best judgement and know your personal risks.