Com tam

Cơm tấm with grilled pork, shredded pork, pork skin, fried egg, pork meatloaf, pickled carrot, and sliced cucumber

Cơm tấm in Vietnamese is cooked rice from fractured rice grains. Tấm refers to the broken rice grains, while cơm refers to cooked rice.

It is usually served with grilled pork (either ribs or shredded) plus the Vietnamese dish bì (thinly shredded pork mixed with cooked and thinly shredded pork skin) over broken rice. The rice and meat are served with various greens and pickled vegetables, along with a prawn paste cake, trứng hấp (steamed egg), and grilled prawns. Typically, restaurants will serve this popular combination rice plate with a small bowl of nước chấm, as well as a small bowl of soup broth (canh) with garlic chives (to cleanse the throat).

Broken rice

Some rice grains break in the transport and processing of the rice from the field to the pot.^[1][2] Machinery is available to separate the broken grains from the whole grains.^[3] Broken rice may^[2] or may not^[4] have lower fiber and nutrient content, but generally has a similar energy content to intact rice.

The broken varieties are often less expensive,^[5] so are preferred by poorer consumers^[6] or used as raw material (such as in beer brewing).^[1][2][4][7] Due to the different size and shape of the grains, broken rice has a different texture from "unbroken" rice. Some chefs and consumers may prefer the qualities of broken rice for certain dishes.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Types of rice
2. ^ ^{a b c} widely copied but unsubstantiated explanation
3. ^ merchant database retrieved 2009-09-26
4. ^ ^{a b} Agriculture Research, May 2002
5. ^ Loan Values for 2007 Crop Whole Kernels and Broken Rice
6. ^ USDA trade report
7. ^ "Life as a Grain of Rice", USDA Ag. Research Service