Com Bi

Com bi (forgive my lack of appropriate accents) is a Vietnamese dish made with broken rice.

Served with your normal scented rice cooker rice the ‘topping’ is made of soy noodles (unappealing called ‘granddad’s hair’ by our family), finely sliced pork, coriander, fresh soy sprouts and chillies.

The thinly sliced pork and pork fat is fried lightly while the soy noodles are just dipped in hot water until they become soft. Meanwhile rice is cooked in a pan and then crushedand added to the mix.

Serve with fresh coriander, soy sprouts and chilli to taste and lashings of nuoc mam!

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Vietnamese Pork Meatball soup

My mother in law delighted us with one of her delicious Vietnamese specialities the day before we set off to the UK. Once quoted to have said about my own parents ‘they give me chocolate biscuits and I like them for that’, the amazing offerings my mother-in-law brings me are at the root of the utterly frictionless relationship I have with my  in-laws.

I’m not a bad person really, just easily coaxed with food.

Looks like a tomatoey broth with some basil floating about, but is bursting with flavour. A light dashing of chilli and lime make it absolutely mouth-watering.

All we had to do was prepare the noodles and truth be told we often use very thin pasta instead of regular noodles and it works just fine.

Pouring out a bowl of goodness…

Like many Vietnamese dishes the warmth of the broth is set off by the crispy and fresh addition of soy on top.  So get slurping!

And for those looking for Vietnamese soup ideas I’ve found the perfect website with instructions to recreate your own little patch of VN http://www.vietnamese-recipes.com/vietnamese-recipes/soups/

 

 

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