Com Tam San Jose appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Com tam · San Jose
Broken rice from South Vietnam, plated with grilled pork chop, shredded pork skin, a fried egg and a bowl of nuoc cham, is San Jose's working lunch.
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.
Where to eat in San Jose:
- Com Tam Dat Thanh