Broken rice originated in the Mekong Delta and has been a staple of Saigon for the past hundred years. It then spread to the central and Northern Parts of Vietnam and abroad, where Vietnamese people live. So now, broken rice with grilled ribs is one of the proud dishes with a Vietnamese taste.
- Why does the Vietnamese broken rice impress diners?
- Conditions to have a tasty broken rice
- How to present a nice plate of broken rice properly
- How to make Vietnamese grilled pork chop broken rice
- Addresses to taste the broken rice in Vietnam
- FAQs about Vietnamese broken rice
- Conclusion
Why does the Vietnamese broken rice impress diners?
Vietnamese broken rice is especially impressive, especially the fluffy rice cooked from broken white rice.
Explaining why Vietnamese farmers used this type of rice to cook; the first is an economical way of eating from ancient times. Specifically, on bad days when there was no food to eat, the workers ate the broken rice, which was usually fed to chickens.
That was the old story. However, nowadays, broken rice has an entirely new look, with many attractive ingredients in a set of rice. The most common ingredient is grilled pork chop, making this dish more tasty.
The pieces of meat are marinated with spices and then put in the oven. The smell of meat and spices fills the nose, accompanied by the sound of fat falling into the burning oven; just that much is enough to wake up the diners’ sense of smell and taste.
In particular, you can find broken rice everywhere in Saigon, with a prominent rib covering most of the dish surface. That is why this food is one of the tasty breakfast dishes. Many people also choose broken rice for lunch and dinner, creating conditions for the establishment of many broken-rice shops to serve diners.
Besides ribs, broken rice has many other ingredients, such as rolls, pigskin, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, and pickles. With a plate of broken rice with such attractive toppings, it is not difficult to understand when most foreign guests tasting a plate of this rice will admire and praise it.
Not stopping there, one of the most quintessential parts of broken rice that cannot be ignored is the tasty fish sauce. Whether the plate of broken rice is delicious or not depends a lot on how the fish sauce is prepared.
In particular, the point that catches your attention about Vietnamese broken rice is that it is eaten with a spoon and fork, not chopsticks as usual. This feature combines East-West culture in Vietnamese dishes, making this dish even more special and interesting.
Conditions to have a tasty broken rice
A delicious plate of broken rice must be cooked from moderately opening rice. Opening too much means the rice is too soft when cooking, making the grains too spongy; each grain is discrete, and eating feels very pale.
If the cooked rice is sticky, you can’t feel each grain of rice touching the tip of your tongue when eating. The feeling of broken rice will no longer be the best. This means that choosing a suitable kind of rice for cooking broken rice is very important: not too sticky and not too soft.
Also, a rice dish must be hot and steamed, making the meat more fragrant.
The rib meat must be cutlet, not lean thigh meat or pork belly, even less meat with a big bone. The meat should still have a bit of bone; it will taste better when eaten.
The meat is grilled or cooked over hot coals without letting the coals smolder, making the meat dry and tough.
The pork chop should be seasoned just right, not too strong to lose its flavor, with a bit of sugar, salt, pepper, garlic, or minced lemongrass, just a little each.
The fish sauce must be diluted with garlic, minced chili very fine, and a little lemon, less salty and slightly sweet. When looking at the sauce cup, the small pieces of chili still float to the top. Those who eat spicy food can add chopped chili.
How to present a nice plate of broken rice properly
A good plate of rice needs to be presented in an eye-catching way. You can show it according to the following criteria:
- The steamed broken rice is pressed into a cup, and then the rice is put on a plate.
- Put the ribs on top, and spread a layer of fried spring onion with fat but still have a natural green color.
- Around the rice, decorate slices of tomato, cucumber, pickled cabbage, and pickled radish harmoniously and beautifully.
- You can add a few stalks of cilantro or flowers with stylized trimmed vegetables.
- Those who like to eat more ingredients can include pork skin, meat rolls, and omelets.
- Notably, the omelet must be cooked to one side, the yolk on the other side is still viscous, and the aroma and the new fatty taste will be rich, newly blended together to form a delicious meal.
How to make Vietnamese grilled pork chop broken rice
The method for making grilled pork chop broken rice is simple, but only some know the secret to give this food the most attractive flavor.
The following is an excellent recipe for tasty Vietnamese broken rice with grilled pork chops.
Ingredients for 4 sets:
- 0.5 kg cutlet rib (4 slides)
- 0.5 pigskin (200 gram)
- 1 bowl of broken rice
- 1 carrot
- 1.5 white radish
- 1/5 orange
- 1 horny chili
- Red onion (shallot), spring onion, garlic
- Other condiments: condensed milk, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, ground pepper, fish sauce, soy sauce, cooking oil, seasoning powder, honey, vinegar
Steps to cook Vietnamese broken rice
Process ingredients
To have a delicious broken rice plate with grilled pork, when buying pork ribs, you should choose pieces that have both the bone and the outer layer of fat.
- Usually, the whole slice is kept to look more beautiful. Then, use the back of a knife handle or a specialized meat beater to beat it tender. The meat will be easier to absorb the spices during the marinating process.
- Broken rice is washed with 3 times water, soaked rice for about 20-30 minutes, and then drained.
- Pork skin is shaved, washed with light saltwater, taken out, drained, and diced.
- Red onion and garlic are peeled, washed, and minced.
- Wash spring onion and slice into a small piece, and scallion head smashed.
- Squeeze orange juice to extract the juice.
- Carrots and white radishes peeled, washed, and sliced into small lines.
- Red chilis are washed, seeded out, and finely chopped.
How to marinate grilled ribs to cook broken rice
After preparing the ribs, marinate them with 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce, 1/2 tablespoon honey, 1/2 tablespoon condensed milk, 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce, 1/2 tablespoon cooking oil, 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/3 teaspoon salt, 1/3 teaspoon pepper, 1/3 seasoning powder. Mix well with minced shallot and garlic.
An excellent way to marinate grilled ribs for great taste is to add orange juice to the marinade. Orange juice brings up the typical aroma of grilled chops. Spread the spices over the ribs, cover with cling cooking film, and place in the freezer to chill for about 2-4 hours.
When you take it out, defrost naturally and then grill the ribs. Take care not to defrost by soaking in water. If you have time, you can marinate the chops overnight so that the ribs can absorb the spices more. This will increase the dish’s flavor and attractiveness.
Steam broken rice
After washing the broken rice, you put it in the rice cooker and then pour in the corresponding amount of water.
To have a delicious plate of broken rice, you should add water equal to the number of rice bowls plus ½ bowls. For example, if you cook 1 bowl of rice, the water needed will be 1.5 bowls, or two bowls of rice will add 2.5.
After measuring the right amount of water, add about 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil and cook.
After the rice is well-steamed, keep it for about 10-15 minutes to dry the surface of the broken rice, prevent the rice grains from sticking to the pot body, and cook evenly.
Make pickle
While waiting for the rice to cook well and the ribs to soak up the spices, you prepare sour food to serve with broken rice.
Carrots and white radish marinated with 1.5 tablespoons of vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce, mix well, and then soak for about 60 minutes to be eaten.
Make onion fat
Put the diced pork skin in the hot oil pan. Heat until the oil is hot and the pork skin is tender, then pour it into a bowl of spring onions. This way of adding hot oil can make the green onion fragrant.
Make the sweet and sour fish sauce
Put a small pot on the stove. Add one tablespoon of sugar, 1.5 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar, and 1/3 teaspoon of salt, dissolve with 80ml -100ml of filtered water, and simmer on the stove.
Cook until the fish sauce thickens, then turn off the heat and let it cool. After the fish sauce has been glued and cooled completely, then add the minced garlic and chili peppers and stir carefully.
>>> Here is another way to prepare a tasty fish sauce.
Grilled pork chops
Make sure to grill after the chops are completely defrosted. You can bake them in the microwave.
However, to properly make Vietnamese grilled pork chop broken rice, you should grill it on a charcoal stove.
When grilling, you need to pay attention to regularly flipping the two sides of the meat so that the ribs are cooked evenly because the marinade has honey, so the meat is easy to burn.
Present and enjoy
After the ribs and rice are cooked, put the rice on a plate. You can cut the ribs into small pieces and then sprinkle onion fat on top.
You can serve this dish with sour food and sweet and sour fish sauce prepared in advance.
Broken rice with the grilled pork chop has the most complete flavor and is best eaten while the rice and ribs are still hot. Hot, spongy broken rice with fragrant grilled ribs creates a combination that stimulates the taste buds.
You can confidently complete exceptional quality and delicious grilled rib broken rice with the instructions above.
Addresses to taste the broken rice in Vietnam
Many shops all around Vietnam sell very flavorful broken rice. Here are the top restaurants in Saigon and Hanoi, which we like to enjoy Com Tam.
You may come to check these addresses:
- Ba Nghien Broken Rice, address: 84 Dang Van Ngu, Ward 10, Phu Nhuan District, HCMC, Vietnam, Opening hours: 7:00 am – 9:00 pm
- Com Tam 36’s address is 11 Phung Hung, Hang Ma, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam. Its opening hours are 10:30 am—2:00 pm and 5:30 pm—9:00 pm.
Frequently asked about Vietnamese broken rice
1. How much does a plate of Vietnamese broken rice cost?
The average price of a plate of broken rice in Saigon and Hanoi is very affordable, from VND 50,000 to VND 70,000. That price depends on the number of ingredients, more or less, or in a large or small restaurant.
2. Eating broken rice, can I gain weight?
Broken rice is very energy-dense, especially when grilled pork ribs, eggs, and oil are added.
It is estimated that a plate of grilled pork chop broken rice, in addition to other ingredients, has a content of 500 to 770 calories, which is high in fat and protein. Therefore, if you eat broken rice regularly, it can make you gain weight.
Even so, with its many nutrients and high energy content, broken rice can be the perfect main meal if you can control your rice portion sizes.
3. Is it good to eat broken rice?
Com Tam is the part of rice that is broken, usually from the top of the rice grain where the germ is located. This section also easily breaks out of the rice grain when milling. So, this part contains a lot of nutrients and vitamins and can be considered the best part of the rice grains.
However, due to high demand, more than authentic broken rice is needed to supply it. Many restaurants only use broken rice grains, not real broken rice, to make Com Tam dishes to serve diners.
Conclusion
Eating a broken rice dish with grilled pork chops and drinking a cup of black coffee before going to work in the morning can be an enjoyable breakfast. It is not too fussy or luxurious and still keeps the popular, close, and harmonious with daily life, typically in the busy city of Ho Chi Minh.
Broken rice with rib can still be considered street food but can also be a dish in a restaurant or a luxury restaurant. In the morning and at lunch or dinner, broken rice with different ingredients, such as eggs, rolls, and skin, is sold in many places.
So, broken rice in Vietnam is a dish with a high synthesis of popularity and luxury, both a food of the poor but also a favorite dish of the rich, both for eating for enjoyment and filling, both found in the countryside and urban areas, both fast food and traditional one in Vietnam.
