Vietnamese Rice And Its Scrumptious Dishes

The original point of Vietnamese cuisine is always rice. That simple ingredient is cooked in different styles to create fine dishes, form the aromatic bamboo-tube rice of the Northwest to the rice with mussel of Hue’s people or clay pot rice and rice with chicken belly of Southern people. We are listing hereuder some specialties of Vietnamese rice.

Distinctive bamboo tube rice (Cơm lam)

Bamboo tube rice is an indispensable dish in the daily life of mountainous people in Northwestern Vietnam. Each mountainous region features different flavors of bamboo-tube rice. The glutinous rice, which is often harvested from September to October lunar month, is grilled in bamboo tubes. In this season, the rice is viscous and romatic.

When having this dish, diners will use a knife to split the tube but retain its white thin layer covering the rice inside. It will be a fantasic experience when the rice breaks into small pieces and enjoy the deliciousness of the rice mixed in the thin silk layer. The mountainous flavor is blended in the small bamboo tube covering the viscid glutinous rice and coconut milk, which will wake up your taste buds.

Bamboo-tube rice is often served with grilled chicken or bamboo-tube beef and sesame and salt. Travel to Northwestern Vietnam in the cold ambiance in the beginning of winter to sit by the campfire, sip the wine drunk out of a jar through pipes and enjoy the grilled bamboo-tube rice. In Hanoi, you can also try this dish when remembering the coldness of the mountainous area.

Plain rice with mussel (Cơm hến)

Mussel is a well-known dish of Hue’s People. Rice with mussel is a mixed dish with various but simple ingerdients. Delicious rice is stirred with small mussels ( mussel in Con Hen is the most delicious ) and served with raw vegetables such as salad, basil, banana flower, sour star-fruit, knotweed, fried peanut, some slices of fried pork skin, onion and Hue’s shrimp paste. All are served as a cool dish, except for hot mussel broth.

Rice with mussel is also accompanied with hot chilli as the taste of Hue’s People. The deep flavor of shrimp paste, the sour of star-fruit and the fat of pork’s skin are blended in the hot mussel broth for a memorable culinary experience.

Original clay-pot rice (Cơm niêu)

In the past, when products made of cast iron aluminum and stainless steel were considered as luxurious things in meals, Vietnamese people in the Mekong River Delta often used clay pots. Therefore, clay-pot rice was a popular dish of ancient people.

Legend has it that when served to kings of the Nguyen dynasty, the clay pot was broken after the Kings finished their meals in order not to reuse it. Since then, the dish has been also called pot-breaking rice to have scrumptious rice, the clay pot must be put on the hearth for cooking. After many researches to restore the ancient cuisine, Com Nieu restaurant created its particular mark. The special rice for this dish is very sophisticated. The rice is cooked by charcoal until it makes the pot’s cover turn out and there is not more water in the pot, the cook will quickly soak the pot in hot charcoal. With the pot breaking rice, the cook needs bigger fire to create the rice crust around the pot. In particular, when enjoying these two dishes, you will have a chance to witness the skillful performance of waiters when throwing and catching the “flying rice crust”. A waiter will break the pot that is very interesting.

The dish is served with any other dishes. Even, diners can only enjoy the rice with fish sauce.

Rice with chicken in Hoi An (Cơm gà Hội An)

Known as a popular dish of the ancient town, Hoi An’s rice with chicken is a favorite dish of guests here with viscous rice mixed in the saffron water. Chicken in this dish must be soft and aromatic with dish must be soft and aromatic with him skin. When placing on the dish, the cook often adds torn chicken on the rice accompanied with aromatic vegetables of Tra Que onion, vegetable pickles, Hoi An’s hot chilli sauce, soya sauce, gralic and chilli sauce.

When enjoying rice with chicken you can feel the deep and hot flavor of this special dish of Hoi An ancient town. The yellow color of rice and the slight pink of the chicken, the green of lemon leaves and spoces will surely allure its diners.

Saigon’s broken rice (Cơm tấm Sài Gòn)

Crushed rice when being husked has created as a mouthwatering dish named “Com Tam” or broken rice. The broken rice is best served with grilled pork spareribs with honey. To make the dish more beautiful, apart form cooking the broken rice in the right method, the dish is also decorated with pork skin mixed with powered grilled rice and gralic. In addition, they also cook the pork pie made of pork meat, eggs. Mushroom, vermicelli and spices. The pie is steamed and sliced carefully to display on the dish with the rice. This dish is also accompaniel with omlet or sausage.

To add flavor to the broken rice diners should be served some sweet-and-sour spinach and other vegetables. The broken rice always includes its “specialized” fish sauce. This is the secret of each restaurant to attract guests. In particular, broken rice is also ranked in the 10 must try dishes of Saigon recognized by international guests.