Broken rice, the quintessential Saigon plate: fractured rice grains topped with a marinated grilled pork chop, shredded pork skin, a steamed pork-and-egg meatloaf and a fried egg, dressed with sweet fish sauce and a bowl of scallion oil.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Com tam began as poverty food. Broken rice grains, cracked during milling and unsellable at full price, were cooked and eaten by farmers and workers across the Mekong Delta. Saigon adopted it and dressed it up: the grains kept their nubbly texture but gained a grilled pork chop marinated in lemongrass and fish sauce, plus bi (shredded pork skin), cha (steamed egg meatloaf) and pickles. Today com tam is served everywhere from sidewalk stalls to the Bib Gourmand grill Com Tam Ba Ghien, and the once-humble broken grain is prized in its own right.
Common allergens: Egg, Fish, Soy
Tip from the editors. No broken rice to hand? Pulse ordinary short-grain rice in a blender for a few seconds to fracture the grains before cooking.
Com Tam Ba Ghien serves the Bib Gourmand broken-rice plate that made it famous: an oversized caramelised grilled pork chop over broken rice.
Try: Com tam suon
Order: Com tam with the giant grilled pork chop and a fried egg.
Tip: It is a Michelin-listed bargain; the pork chop alone feeds most appetites.
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