Flavor Boulevard

We Asians like to talk food.
Subscribe

Thiên Hương makes the best broken rice

April 02, 2011 By: Mai Truong Category: California - The Bay Area, Comfort food, One shot, Vietnamese


I like those restaurants that specialize. You go there and you know exactly what you’re gonna get: the one thing that the chefs make and that everyone else gets.


Cơm Tấm Thiên Hương uses two full pages to write all different combinations of their one dish: cơm tấm (broken rice) with meats, egg, and tofu. If they just list the “toppings” and their corresponding price, like for a pizza, the menu would condense down to the size of a calculator. Common toppings for broken rice are grilled pork (or chicken, or beef), chả trứng (egg loaf), tàu hủ ki (flaky fried tofu), bì (shredded pork skin), and fancier, chạo tôm (shrimp sausage on sugarcane). If you can choose up to 4 toppings on your plate, combinatorics tells us that’s 98 possible combinations. If you read Thiên Hương’s two-page menu and don’t see your perfect fit, just tell the waiter what you’d like. Broken rice can be custom-made, so to speak.


What makes broken rice superior to normal rice is its broken nature. Through milling, the germs, which are about 1/10 of a rice grain, break away from the endosperms (the part we eat and call “white rice”) and get mixed with other broken bits of the grains to form “tấm“. Millers used to collect tấm from the whole grains as an accidental byproduct and sell it at a cheaper price, but many people came to recognize that cooked tấm gives a better fragrance and tastes sweeter than normal rice, since it’s the most nourished part of a grain. By and by its popularity rises, factories these days even purposefully choose good rice to fracture and produce good broken rice with different desired ratios of germ to broken endosperm. The more germ the better, of course, but also the harder it is to cook. The germs don’t expand as much as the endosperm while boiled, the best cơm tấm comes by steaming tấm that has been soaked for a few hours in cold water. The grain bits then don’t cling to each other like normal rice, its texture as a whole is fine and dainty (similar to couscous). Pour in a few spoonfuls of the all-time sweet and savory nước mắm and cơm tấm is complete.


The meat and all are just bonus prize. I grew up loving chargrilled pork chop, egg loaf, and pork skin with my broken rice. But the grilled chicken at Thiên Hương is much juicier than the chop, and that sweetness afterchew from the sugarcane stick makes chạo tôm a wise company. Try to mix the egg and vermicelli bits of the egg loaf with the rice… mmmm I shouldn’t write this post at midnight, there’s not even pizza delivery this late.


To shake things up from the veggie end, Thiên Hương also adds a few pickled củ kiệu, all sweet and crunchy, with some lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and pickled carrots. Rabbit food? Yum.


I bet my keyboard that no sane body who enters here orders the lone token noodle soups at the bottom of the menu. Among the Vietnamese diners in the States, I haven’t seen anyone going full force focused like Cơm Tấm Thiên Hương, and they make the best cơm tấm, and I love it!

Address: Cơm Tấm Thiên Hương 2 (inside Grand Century Mall)
1111 Story Road #1086
San Jose, CA 95122

Money matter: $21.41 for two lunch plates and a soursop smoothie

0 Comments to “Thiên Hương makes the best broken rice”


  1. I was looking through some of your articles on this internet site and I believe this internet site is real informative ! Retain putting up.

    1
  2. I truly enjoy reading through on this web site, it has excellent content.

    2
  3. You have brought up a very wonderful details , appreciate it for the post.

    3
  4. I’ve recently started a site, the information you provide on this web site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.

    4
  5. I visitedd vrious web sites except the audio quallity for
    audio songs current at this site is in fact excellent.
    xnxx

    5
  6. Wonderful goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just extremely fantastic. I really like what you’ve acquired here, really like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it smart. I cant wait to read far more from you. This is actually a wonderful site.

    6
  7. very good submit, i actually love this web site, carry on it

    7
  8. I really appreciate you for publishing this interesting article. I love your website. Thank you for providing a space for me to comment on your web page. I look forward to more informative publications from you in the future.

    8
  9. Hi there! This post could not be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!

    9
  10. Some genuinely nice and useful info on this internet site, as well I believe the pattern holds fantastic features.

    10
  11. You got a very wonderful website, Gladiola I discovered it through yahoo.

    11
  12. I always was concerned in this topic and stock still am, thanks for putting up.

    12
  13. Fascinating blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A design like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your design. Kudos

    13
  14. 소액결제현금화의 의미와 수수료 계산, 실제 부담액을 확인하세요. 휴대폰 결제 한도와 통신요금 청구, 관련 법령, 취소·환불 및 피해 대응까지 공식 자료를 바탕으로 정리했습니다.

    14
  15. The root of your writing whilst sounding reasonable in the beginning, did not settle properly with me personally after some time. Someplace within the paragraphs you actually were able to make me a believer unfortunately only for a short while. I nevertheless have a problem with your leaps in assumptions and you would do well to help fill in all those gaps. When you actually can accomplish that, I would certainly end up being amazed.

    15
  16. Some truly nice stuff on this site, I like it.

    16
  17. 부산여성전용마사지 부산토닥이 드디어 부산 상륙 NO.1 부산 최대 규모 관리사들 항시 대기중 24시 연중무휴

    17
  18. 부산여성전용마사지 부산토닥이 드디어 부산 상륙 NO.1 부산 최대 규모 관리사들 항시 대기중 24시 연중무휴

    18
  19. This is a topic close to my heart cheers, where are your contact details though?

    19
  20. Thank you for another magnificent article. Where else could anyone get that kind of info in such an ideal way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.

    20
  21. Wow! Thank you! I permanently wanted to write on my website something like that. Can I implement a portion of your post to my blog?

    21
  22. Good write-up, I’m normal visitor of one’s site, maintain up the excellent operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a long time.

    22
  23. I think you have noted some very interesting points, thanks for the post.

    23
  24. Great amazing things here. I’m very happy to peer your article. Thanks so much and i’m taking a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?

    24
  25. Wonderful work! This is the type of info that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher! Come on over and visit my website . Thanks =)

    25
  26. As a Newbie, I am constantly exploring online for articles that can benefit me. Thank you

    26
  27. It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this fantastic blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will talk about this site with my Facebook group. Talk soon!

    27
  28. Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by accident, and I am shocked why this accident did not happened earlier! I bookmarked it.

    28
  29. Hi my loved one! I wish to say that this article is awesome, great written and come with almost all significant infos. I would like to peer more posts like this .

    29
  30. Hi there, I discovered your site by way of Google while looking for a similar matter, your website came up, it appears great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

    30
  31. Thanks for your personal marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you will be a great author.I will ensure that I bookmark your blog and definitely will come back in the future. I want to encourage you continue your great job, have a nice evening!

    31
  32. Hello there, I discovered your web site by means of Google at the same time as looking for a comparable topic, your web site got here up, it looks great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

    32
  33. Fantastic site. Plenty of useful info here. I’m sending it to several friends ans also sharing in delicious. And naturally, thanks in your sweat!

    33
  34. An impressive share, I simply given this onto a colleague who was doing just a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast as a result of I discovered it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the deal with! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love studying extra on this topic. If possible, as you change into experience, would you thoughts updating your blog with more details? It is extremely useful for me. Large thumb up for this blog publish!

    34
  35. Hey there, You’ve done an excellent job. I’ll definitely digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited from this website.

    35
  36. I think this is one of the most important information for me. And i am glad reading your article. But should remark on some general things, The site style is great, the articles is really nice :D. Good job, cheers

    36
  37. great post, very informative. I’m wondering why the other experts of this sector do not understand this. You must continue your writing. I’m sure, you’ve a great readers’ base already!

    37
  38. I like this site so much, saved to fav. “I don’t care what is written about me so long as it isn’t true.” by Dorothy Parker.

    38
  39. It’s in reality a great and helpful piece of information. I’m glad that you simply shared this helpful info with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.

    39
  40. A lot of of whatever you state is supprisingly accurate and it makes me wonder the reason why I had not looked at this with this light previously. Your piece really did turn the light on for me as far as this issue goes. Nonetheless there is actually one point I am not really too comfortable with and whilst I make an effort to reconcile that with the central theme of your issue, permit me observe exactly what all the rest of your readers have to say.Nicely done.

    40
  41. 여기여 주소모음 | 링크모음·최신주소 확인 가이드 여기여 주소모음과 링크모음의 의미부터 분야별 사이트 바로가기, 최신주소 확인 방법까지 안내합니다. 접속 오류 점검, 모바일 이용법, 자주 묻는 질문을 확인하고 필요한 서비스를 찾아보세요.

    41
  42. 서울출장마사지와 서울출장안마 이용 안내. 강남·송파·마포 등 서울 지역의 홈타이 코스와 예약 절차를 확인하세요. 24시간 상담, 선입금 없는 후불제 타임케어. 방문 가능 여부와 최종 요금은 상담 시 안내합니다.

    42
  43. 서울출장마사지와 서울출장안마 이용 안내. 강남·송파·마포 등 서울 지역의 홈타이 코스와 예약 절차를 확인하세요. 24시간 상담, 선입금 없는 후불제 타임케어. 방문 가능 여부와 최종 요금은 상담 시 안내합니다.

    43
  44. whoah this blog is magnificent i love reading your articles. Keep up the good work! You know, lots of people are searching around for this info, you could aid them greatly.

    44
  45. Very interesting topic, thanks for putting up.

    45
  46. It’s actually a nice and useful piece of information. I am happy that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.

    46
  47. Hello would you mind stating which blog platform you’re working with? I’m going to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique. P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!

    47
  48. I really appreciate you for posting this great article. I absolutely love your website. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to comment on your article. I hope more interesting posts from you in the near future.

    48
  49. I truly appreciate this post. I’ve been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thank you again

    49
  50. I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You have made my day! Thx again

    50


Leave a Reply