Com Tam, Hu Tieu and the Saigon Breakfast Table
Ho Chi Minh City eats breakfast on the street, standing up, before seven. A guide to the southern morning dishes that are not pho. Breakfast in Ho Chi Minh City happens early, outdoors and fast. By half past six the pavements around any market are lined with low tables, the charcoal is lit, and a substantial part of the city is eating rice and grilled pork before work. Pho exists here, and it is fine, but it is a northern import. The southern morning table is a different set of dishes and it is worth getting up for. Com tam Com tam is the definitive Saigon breakfast. The name means broken rice — the fractured grains that used to be sold cheap because they could not be sold whole, and which turn out to have a slightly rougher, more absorbent texture that suits the dish better than intact rice would. The classic plate is com tam suon bi cha . Suon is a pork chop marinated in lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce and sugar and grilled over coals until the edges char. Bi is shredded pork skin tossed with toasted rice powder. Cha is a steamed egg and pork loaf, often with glass noodles and wood ear mushroom through it. Add a fried egg with a runny yolk, some pickled vegetables, sliced cucumber and tomato, a spoon of scallion oil, and a bowl of thinned nuoc cham to pour over the whole plate. Pour the fish sauce liberally. The dish is designed around it, and a com tam eaten dry is a com tam eaten wrong. Hu tieu Hu tieu is the southern noodle soup, and it comes from the Teochew Chinese and…
- Published
- 2026-05-22
- Author
- Betel Editorial
