Com Tam Dat Thanh ★ 4.4
Com Tam Dat Thanh in San Jose is the Tully Road broken rice specialist with fried shrimp cake, grilled sugarcane shrimp and shredded pork on jasmine rice.
Try: Broken rice plate with grilled pork and shrimp cake
History
Com tam literally means broken rice, referring to the fractured grains that were historically considered inferior to whole rice and sold cheaply to Saigon's working class. Street vendors and rice-plate shops adopted it as a low-cost, filling base for grilled meats and garnishes, and it became a staple of southern Vietnamese street food culture. When Vietnamese refugees arrived in San Jose after 1975, com tam became a daily staple in East San Jose, with plates served from early morning to mid-afternoon as a breakfast and lunch dish.
Common allergens: Gluten, Eggs
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 400 g broken jasmine rice or jasmine rice (slightly over-soaked to simulate texture)
- For nuoc cham: 60 ml fish sauce, 60 ml lime juice, 60 ml sugar, 120 ml water, 2 garlic cloves minced, 2 bird chillies sliced
- 4 thin bone-in pork chops, scored
- Marinade: 3 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil, 3 lemongrass stalks minced, 4 garlic cloves minced, 1 shallot minced
- 4 eggs
- Spring onions, sliced, in 2 tbsp neutral oil (moo hanh) for topping
- Optional: cha bong (shredded pork floss), cha trung (steamed egg cake)
Method
- Combine marinade ingredients. Coat pork chops thoroughly. Marinate at room temperature 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.
- Whisk nuoc cham ingredients until sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust: should be balanced sweet, sour, salty and garlicky. Stand 30 minutes.
- Cook rice per packet directions. Spread on a tray to cool slightly so grains separate.
- Grill or pan-fry pork chops over high heat 3 to 4 minutes per side until charred at edges and cooked through.
- Fry eggs in oil over medium heat until whites are set but yolks still runny, about 3 minutes.
- Heat sliced spring onions in oil until sizzling. Pour over rice as a garnish.
- Plate rice, top with pork chop and fried egg. Add pork floss and egg cake if using. Serve with nuoc cham on the side.
Tip from the editors. The moo hanh spring-onion oil is the flavour anchor: sizzle it properly and pour it hot over the rice right before serving.
Where to eat com tam
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