com tam thuan kieu

com tam thuan kieu
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

once the pho fix was out of the way, i was feeling in the mood for some bun thit nuong, which is vermicelli with grilled pork. it's been a long time. i'm not sure if it's a menstrual cycle thing or not that i've been craving meat lately, because i usually don't eat much meat at all.

even though i've lived fairly close to some of the best vietnamese food in the country and have had opportunity to partake of such bounty, i haven't really explored little saigon. one of these places is com tam thuan kieu, which translates roughly to broken rice different ways. broken rice was what was kept by the peasant workers who threshed rice for themselves to eat, while the perfect grains went to market.

i scheduled a day of appointments for mike & myself this past sat, first to the dentist for a cleaning, then haircuts, so it worked out great that lunch would be somewhere in between. we ended up going for rice rather than vermicelli since i heard about the good food at com tam, and it was a restaurant i hadn't tried before.

the menu included a number of variations of broken rice with different preparations of meat, including grilled pork, beef, grilled shrimp, pork skin with rice powder, pickled veggies, fried shrimp tofu, omelet-like egg mixture.

mike had the rice with grilled shrimp and fried shrimp tofu. i had mine with beef & shrimp tofu. the beef was sweet and tender from the marinade, and the shrimp tofu had an interesting texture and good flavor. it was a little on the greasy side. interestingly, i can't take too much greasy food, and though i can be a purist with regards to some things, i prefer food without a lot of grease. some people savor the grease, but my mom raised me with healthy eating habits. that is not to say i don't like fried foods. i also grew up in a home with a fry daddy.

mike thought his dish was tasty, but is still getting over the fish sauce. i guess growing up with it, it neither seemed odd or too intense. seriously, there are fishier things than nuoc cham, which is made from fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic and chilis, like this shrimp paste stuff even my mom's not too crazy about.

for years i did not realize how lucky i was to have such a great cook for a mom, and though i can't always have mom's cooking, something about eating vietnamese food is comforting. i think that is part of why vietnam, that i never knew, seemed so familiar the first time i visited.