We owe a lot to coffee — even this post itself is essentially the end result of a rather strong cup of the black stuff.

That's probably why this video really got our percolators flowing: a slick and visually compelling recipe for café sua da, the potent, caffeine-heavy French roast beverage sweetened with a generous amount of condensed milk, found on the menu at almost every Vietnamese restaurant in town (and a good amount of Thai places, too). It just us makes us wish we were in Saigon, wearing a pair of bamboo flip-flops and reading a weathered copy of The Quiet American.

Since you might not always be in the mood for a glass while sipping your bowl of pho, this video provides an easy and informative recipe for how to make it yourself in the early morning. You can find phin filters, the little perforated-metal container that sits above the cup, at a Asian restaurant supply store, a Thai or Vietnamese market, or at any 99 Ranch location. Here's another, more in-depth post about creating the drink by L.A.'s own Ravenous Couple blog.

The creator of the video is Eric Slatkin of High Beam Media in San Francisco, a guy who apparently used to do videos for Chow.com and also happens to have an ear for '60s-era Thai jazz tunes.

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