#condensed milk

Food Culture

History in a Tin: The Colonial Past of Vietnam Through Popular Canned Food

Whether it is fish placed neatly inside rectangular tins or uniform meat slabs stored in cylindrical cans with colorful packages, eating canned food is a strange experience. Unlike sitting in street food stalls or eating at home — where one can witness the food being made — the homogenizing, sanitized, mass-produced packages one mindlessly grabs from a supermarket counter obscure the labor that goes into the meal, as well as its origins.

Culture

[Illustrations] An Ode to Sữa Ông Thọ and the Games of Our Saigon Childhood

To assess how important condensed milk is in Vietnamese culture, think of cà phê sữa đá , Vietnam’s national drink that wouldn’t exist without a dollop of Sữa Ông Thọ (Mr. Longevity milk).