Hot°ComTam

As respected Orange County food writer Edwin Goei wisely noted in his introduction to Hot°ComTam – one of many Little Saigon-area restaurants offering Vietnamese-style broken rice dishes – the appeal of cơm tấm plates is more about their proteins than their bowl-sized dollops of uniquely half-width rice grains. While Goei calls cơm tấm restaurants “Vietnamese barbecue specialists in disguise,” the protein options at Hot°ComTam go well beyond barbecued meats, and the rice is merely an option. Here, you can construct a bowl of bún vermicelli noodles instead of a rice plate, choose from the same collection of toppings, and have basically the same experience as at a thousand other Vietnamese restaurants. One member of our group did just that, and really enjoyed her meal.

For the more traditional experience, pick from one of four sizes of cơm tấm plates ($11-$15.49) with your choice of 1, 2, 3, or 4 proteins: shredded pork/skin, steamed egg cake, fried egg rolls, fried chicken, Chinese sausage, Vietnamese nem sausage, sunny side up egg, beef short rib, char-broiled pork chop, tofu skin shrimp cake, char-broiled pork, or char-broiled shrimp. Probably skip the free bowl of house soup, which comes with the plate on request, but Goei described as akin to “peppered dish water.” Consider one of four other soups ($5 to $14), steamed clams ($9), four types of spring rolls (2/$6), seasoned fries ($6), or chicken wings ($9) as an appetizer. Then place your order using a supplied, okay-ish tablet, and wait 10 or 15 minutes for items to start arriving.

A small collection of drinks includes Vietnamese coffee, milk and Thai teas, soft drinks, passion fruit juice, and chia seed drinks with either aloe vera or grass jelly. We tried the coffee, passion fruit juice, and aloe vera/chia drinks, each fine in flavor and quantity for $3 to $4, though the coffee cup was substantially filled with ice, and the passion fruit juice barely below room temperature, and lightly iced.