Cơm tấm: Sài Gòn’s broken rice, and how to order it

Cơm tấm is Sài Gòn on a plate: a mound of broken rice, a pork chop straight off the charcoal, and a jug of sweet fish sauce to pour over everything. People eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and at the late-night stalls long after that.

Why broken rice?

Tấm are the grains that break when rice is milled. They were once sold off cheap, and the story goes that this was the rice of people who couldn’t afford whole grains. Sài Gòn made it a favourite. The small grains soak up the sauce, and today people choose them on purpose.

What’s on the plate

• Sườn nướng: a thin pork chop, usually on the bone, marinated sweet and salty and grilled over charcoal. The smoke is how you find the stall.
• Bì: thin strips of pork skin and pork, tossed with toasted rice powder. Chewy and nutty.
• Chả trứng: a steamed cake of egg and minced pork, often with glass noodles and wood ear mushroom, golden on top. Think of a savoury flan.
• Ốp la: a fried egg, best with the yolk still runny.
• Mỡ hành: chopped spring onion in hot oil, spooned over the rice.
• Đồ chua: pickled carrot and daikon, the same crunch you get in a bánh mì, with slices of cucumber and tomato.
• Nước mắm: fish sauce mixed with sugar, lime or vinegar, garlic and chilli, sweet and sharp. It goes over everything. More in our fish sauce guide.

Many stalls also bring a small bowl of clear soup on the side.

How to order

Cơm tấm is ordered by what goes on top. Say the rice, then the toppings you want.

• “Cho tôi một dĩa cơm tấm sườn bì chả.” One plate of broken rice with pork chop, pork skin and egg cake, please. The classic.
• “Cơm tấm sườn.” Just the pork chop.
• “Thêm trứng.” Add a fried egg.
• “Thêm nước mắm.” More fish sauce. You will want it.

In the south a plate is a dĩa; in the north it is a đĩa. If the words won’t come, point at the plate on the next table. Everyone does.

How to eat it

1. Pour some nước mắm over the rice. Not all of it: you can always add more.
2. Eat with a fork and a spoon, not chopsticks. Use them to pull the pork off the bone and cut it into pieces.
3. Get a little of everything in each spoonful: rice, pork, a strand of bì, a bit of egg cake and some pickles.
4. Add fresh chilli from the table if you like it hot.

When to go

Breakfast is cơm tấm’s busiest hour. The grills are lit early, and the queue is office workers grabbing a plate before work. It doesn’t stop there: there is cơm tấm at lunch, at dinner, and at night stalls for people heading home late. Follow the charcoal smoke, look for a crowd on low stools, and sit down. More dishes to try nearby are in our Sài Gòn street food guide.

Eat Sài Gòn with us

Cơm tấm is not on our menu, but our Sài Gòn outings are built around the same kind of stalls: shop Bến Thành’s back lanes with a market auntie and cook four southern dishes in her home kitchen on the Market-to-Wok Cooking Class, or ride pillion between six stalls after dark on the Back-of-the-Bike Food Night.