Com Hen - a rustic specialty of Hue City
By My Tran in HCMC
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| Com hen – specialty of Hue - Photo: My Tran |
Hue is not only famous for many historical and cultural relics and splendid landscapes, but also has a number of outstanding dishes. One traditional specialty of Hue is com hen (clam rice).
Com hen is simple yet intricate dish that fuses together a variety of flavors from clams, fried pork fat, clam broth, roasted peanuts, crunchy rice crackers, chili pepper, banana flower, star fruit, mint herb, Vietnamese coriander, taro stem, fermented shrimp sauce and temperature rice.
These ingredients culminate in a distinctive balance of sweetness, saltiness, sourness and spiciness with two separate crunchy textures.
To make the dish, first choose an amount of fresh clam depending on how many guests, clean them and steam them for some minutes before taking them out their shells. The clam broth should be put in a separate bowl and added to some ginger.
The rice after it is cooked should be cooled and the dish is prepared by pouring the steaming hot clam soup onto cool rice, then mixed with raw vegetables and spicy chili. One more thing, diners should put add some mam nem fish sauce. However, if you are not familiar with the smell of the sauce, you can try without.
The dish is available at Hue restaurants in town.