Rice cooked in small earthenware pots (Com nieu)

For many Vietnamese today, com nieu does not always mean a modest life in the countryside. As fast food corrupts traditional diets, people are longing for a taste of home cooking.

For com nieu restaurateurs in Hanoi, this means business. Eating com nieu (rice cooked in small earthenware pots), which is served with various traditional Red River delta dishes, has become a popular trend among the nouveau riche in Vietnam.

The most common version of is com nieu served with ca kho to , specially prepared fish in soya sauce with some herbs and in smaller earthenware pots.

Cooking com nieu is not as simple as it appears. Firstly, the rice must be perfumed rice (tam thom).

The restaurants offer their rice cooked three different ways: Medium, well-cooked to a yellowish brown colour, and rice so well-cooked it is nearly burnt. The food is going to taste good just by the smell and many customers prefer the half-burnt rice (which is almost impossible to cook with an electric cooker) and whatever they ask for, the restaurants can provide.

The best com nieu is cooked using straw for fuel, but that becomes impossible in Hanoi because the restaurants don't have enough space and the straw is very smoky.

But why the pots? The earthenware nurtures the food through the cooking process and keep it warm for a long time.

In addition, a colourful collection of vegetable soups and salads prepared in the countryside's style are on the menu in most corn nieu restaurants. The most famous are green cabbage cooked with fish, ginger and banana flower mixed salad.

On a typical com nieu menu, there are dishes ranging from roasted frogs to fried eels and river shell soup, not to mention tofu.

Com nieu goes particularly well with fish, which may take more than four hours to cook. Catfish, goby (a spiny fish) and climbing perch (a river fish) are bought from the suburban markets of Hanoi. After cleaning and gutting, the fish are marinated in a salt and soya sauce. Herbs, sugar and pork are then added and the whole creation is transfered into a clay pot and cooked slowly. The best fish is black in skin colour when cooked, and every bone must be as soft as the meat, which is slightly brown under the skin and white deep inside.

Higher levels of disposable income in Vietnam has changed people's eating habits. People eat out more, often ordering a huge amount of food, far more than they would ever be able to finish. But for some connoisseurs of authentic Vietnamese cuisine, com nieu provides a welcome break from tacky surroundings. And a chance to reflect on a bygone era of countryside-style home cooking.

Source:  Vietnam Style