Until
recently, my exposure to Vietnamese food
was limited to Phó
(soup, not unlike Japanese udon). So
the opportunity to dig a little deeper is
not passed up.
The ambience was like stepping straight
into Vietnam. The staff is friendly
enough, but non-asians sure do get the
twice over from the rest of the patrons.
Outside the restaurant it is a bustling
marketplace that could do with a street
sweeping (or acid wash). Be careful
of the north end of the parking lot, it
looks like the seagulls and pigeons using
it for a bombing range. Inside, the
restaurant has the strong smell of
bathroom cleaners or disinfectants (which
can be good or bad - but tends to
overpower your appetite).
Getting back to the food review, Com
Tam translates to "broken rice".
Thuan Kieu is someone's name and does not
translate. The menu consists of
50-60 rice dishes with different types of
meats: pork, beef, chicken & something
casually referred to as meats.
I tried the beef with steamed egg.
My dish arrived in home-style fashion.
Meaning that it was not particularly
arranged, but it looked and smelled good.
Broken rice means that the grains are
smaller than your regular steamed rice -
we all joked about who got stuck having to
break each grain of rice for the day's
menu.
I tasted no difference in their rice,
it is in the white jasmine family.
The beef was flavorful and came with a
fish sauce for the rice that was quite
vinegary in taste. I added some
chili sauce to balance it out, but still
could not get my taste buds around it.
My co-worker became concerned at how much
I was complaining at the sourness and
offered me a taste of his. It was
determined by the group that my sauce was
"bad" and we left it at that. The
steamed egg was reminiscent of Chinese
steamed egg and had some dried shrimp in
it. I liked it, even though it was a
little fishy from the preserved shrimp
(very strong in flavor, used mostly for
soups in Chinese cooking).
All in all, I did enjoy my lunch - but
probably would not visit this location
again. In checking for maps, I did
locate other Com Tam Thian Kieu locations
in the Orange County area. Maybe
later, though.
