Everything about " Cơm Tấm "
You’ve seen all the previous noodle dishes mentioned in this guide, but as much as I love noodles, I love rice more So let’s move onto a few of the famous and most beloved Vietnamese rice based dishes. One of the most common meals I noticed throughout my stay in Saigon, especially known as a southern favorite, is the combination of rice (which is often broken rice, which are partially broken grains of rice that occur in the milling process), topped with a grilled pork chop.
The most basic version is known as cơm tấm sườn nướng, the broken rice and a thin grilled pork chop, served on a plate and accompanied by fish sauce dressing, cucumber pickles, green onion oil, and chilies to garnish. Starting from the most basic version of com tam suon nuong, you can then upgrade with all sorts of marvelous extra things like a fried egg, Vietnamese meatloaf, pig skin, extra pork, more sausage... the list goes on. Com tam suon nuong is available all over in Saigon, especially at small street food stalls and markets throughout the city I loved eating it for lunch and dinner, and a few times for breakfast as well. Perhaps as readily available as com tom suon around Saigon, is another one of the most typical rice meals you can eat, com binh dan, which literally translates to com- moner’s rice. It’s basically the khao gaeng (rice and curry in Thailand) or nasi campur (rice and curry of Malaysia), style dining experience of Vietnam. Com binh dan is one of the most filling meals you can buy in Saigon on a budget – easily the best stomach filling meal for value. At any com binh dan stall you’ll first see a glass cabinet filled with the day’s supply of pre-cooked dishes, all waiting to be ordered. The food usually ranges from braised pork belly, any number of fish dishes, and one of my favorites, tofu stuffed with minced pork and covered in tomato sauce (if you see it, you’ve got to try it, I’m sill dreaming about it). To order your meal at a com binh dan street food stall, you can simply point and choose to whatever dishes look good. Often a plate of rice with 2 or 3 dishes on top will cost 20,000 – 30,000 VND ($0.92 –$1.38), and if you get rice with dishes on the side in separate bowls, it will run a little higher, but you usually get bigger portions. For myself, being a lover of rice accompanied by multiple meat and vegetable sides dishes, com binh dan is one of my favorite Vietnamese meals to eat for lunch in Sai- gon. Walking around one day, I headed down a side street and was greeted by a delicious looking supply of pre-made dishes filled into a glass cabinet, and since I was quite hungry right then, I stopped for lunch. This restaurant was very typical, so really you’ll find this exact type of food at thousands of stalls throughout Viet- nam. The family serving the food were all very nice and the ladies dishing out the meals were smiling and happy that I was so enthusiastically taking photos of their motherly cooking. I had a very satisfying com binh dan lunch here, and I tried everything from fried fish, to pork and beef, and my particular favorite, again, the tofu stuffed with minced pork and topped with tomato sauce
