Instructions: 1. Put 3 teaspoons of ground espresso into a Vietnamese coffee maker

(available at Asian groceries). Screw the lid down tight.

2. Put 2 to 3 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk into the bottom of a coffee cup, and put the Vietnamese coffee maker on the cup.

3. Put 1 tablespoon of boiling water on top of the screw-lid, then unscrew it till bubbles come out of the holes in the screw-lid and drops of coffee start trickling into the cup. Then fill the maker to just below the top and put the cover on it.

4. Try to ignore the coffee maker for the next 20 minutes, or however long it takes to drip.

Note: you can cut the time to brew by unscrewing the screw-lid a few turns, but this affects strength; stronger, richer coffee takes longer than weaker coffee.

5. When the water has all dripped through the coffee, stir the coffee to mix with the sweetened condensed milk. Pour over ice. Try not to drink it too quickly... it tastes like melted coffee ice cream.

If you cannot find a Vietnamese coffee maker, you can get much the same effect by using espresso or coffee made in a plunger pot. But if youre the kind of person who likes fountain pens, SU carburettors, and generally messing about with things to no particular point or benefit, the Vietnamese coffee makers can be terribly relaxing. They are a living example of the difference between tweak, twiddle and frob. No matter how much you tweak or twiddle with it, you end up just frobbing it.

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