Throwing Charcoal-Grilled Rice, Caramelizing Fish, and Other Brilliant Food Ideas at Com Nieu Sai Gon Restaurant

If you’re going to throw rice in a restaurant, this is how you do it…

To give credit where credit is due, Anthony Bourdain hit this place first. He knows the female owner, respects her (and is possibly, sensible afraid of her), and loves sincerely all the food that this restaurant creates.

In District 3 there’s a homestyle Vietnamese restaurant that’s made its name on grilling rice in a claypot, breaking that claypot, then throwing the crispy-exteriored (not a word) rice across the length of the restaurant to a server who catches it, flips it a couple times in the air, and then gently places it, lovingly, on a serving plate. Then he douses it will scallion oil, scallions, and a year’s supply of sesame seeds, which brown to toasted deliciousness.

Throw in a sweet and salty charcoal-grilled eggplant dish, a sour soup with basa (white fleshed fish, a little like cod, and equally unsustainable, I believe), caramelized chicken in another (unbroken) claypot, sweet and spicy fermented shrimp, house-made pickles (I think they’re house-made, and maybe even naturally fermented), and perfectly steamed mixed greens (silken winter squash, bright green greens, perfectly blanched okra, and ridged winged beans), and you’re going to be happy.

…which is what Bourdain says here:

Made in 2008, not much has changed. Except bourdain doesn’t mention the rats in the side room where they stashed me as a solo diner. The first time I saw it, I shrugged. It wasn’t bothering me. After a couple countries of cockroaches, a little rat wasn’t going to bother me. But then the rat came back, so after I mentioned it to the server, he just smiled and shrugged, and said it had come in from the outside and there was nothing he could do.

Sure. Fine. But then the third time, when it almost ran over my left foot, I got a little uppity. I told the server I was “disconcerted,” which he clearly didn’t understand. But he did move me to another table away from the door. (Aside: a cockroach ran over my left foot at an ice dessert shop yesterday and I freaked out a little. If another cockroach or rat never comes near my left foot again it’ll be too soon…)

I forgot to mention the fish cake. My least favourite appetizer, this shallow-fried cake has a spongy texture from the pulverized fish. The texture is cool, but you need the hot sauce and hoisin to dip it in or it’s very bland and oily. The beet garnish is pretty, though.

 

 

You’ve got to love winding straws. Every time you order a drink in Vietnam it’s served with a glass with ice and a straw. Hygiene and all because drinking from the glass has more possibility of contamination in a city with unclean water? But Com Nieu Sai Gon restaurant even adds whimsy to its drinks. You wouldn’t think this one was healthy, would you? The long, tall glass even makes it seem as though you’re getting more juice than you are. It’s mostly ice. The pennywort drink is traditional. Called rau ra, I think, it’s a tender green sprout that they blend with water, sieve, and sweeten with sugar. It’s pretty healthy, minus the sugar, so I get mine with less. This one was less watered down than the one I got at the market the next day. I wish I knew if the market ones were with bottled water, but the one here definitely was. Besides, those pickles will make it better (if they’re naturally fermented).

And there’s local beer, of course, which is a much better choice than the wine (expensive and not great, as it is everywhere in Vietnam). They serve it with ice here (again, like most places do), and it’s light enough that it doesn’t make much of a difference.

I think there are a couple of these, but I went to the one in District 3. At night there’s a lovely little park nearby to walk through after dinner, all lit up and full of locals enjoying the summer night.