Che Bap Cam Nam — Made With Sticky Corn Grown on the River Silt
Cam Nam is an islet in mid-river, alluvial soil, planted with sticky corn. The bowl is only good when the corn is young and freshly picked.
This page is translated from Vietnamese. Prices and opening hours are checked against Vietnamese sources — see the Vietnamese version for the most recent update.
Cẩm Nam is an islet of land in mid-river, right beside Hoi An old town — one bridge and you are there.
The soil is alluvial silt from the Thu Bồn river, and what has been grown on it longest is sticky corn.
The corn came first, the sweet soup after
Corn has been on Cẩm Nam since the island was still bare silt: along with rice, sweet potato and cassava, it fed people through the hard years.
Chè bắp is the nicest way to use young corn. Which means this dish grew out of the island’s own crop, rather than being a recipe brought in.
Why it is only lightly sweet
Chè bắp Cẩm Nam is gently sweet, not sharply so.
The reason is the ingredient: young corn, freshly picked, is already sweet and smells of milk, so the cook does not need much sugar. Old corn, or corn that has sat around, is bland — and making it sweet then means adding sugar, at which point the bowl turns cloying and loses the smell of corn.
That is also why the dish is at its best eaten right there in Cẩm Nam, where the corn goes from field to pot the same day.
Cooked with the corn are coconut milk and a little tapioca starch for body. Some places scatter grated coconut on top.
Hot or cold
Both exist. Hot brings out the corn and coconut aromas; cold suits a hot midday.
Sellers in Cẩm Nam usually have both — just ask.
When to eat it
This is dessert — after walking the old town, or after a bowl of cao lầu or chicken rice.
Cẩm Nam is a few minutes from the old town on foot or by bike, so it closes off an afternoon in Hoi An neatly.
Besides chè bắp, the islet also sells boiled corn, bánh đập and clam salad — the snack cluster of Cẩm Nam.
Other dishes in the area
Specialties used in this dish
Mắm tôm chua Nhựt Hoàng loại 1 – hũ 500g Whole shrimp fermented naturally, gently sour and full-flavoured — the dipping sauce that belongs to a central Vietnamese table. 75.000₫ 
Mắm nêm Nhựt Hoàng – hũ 500g Mắm nêm in a jar, thicker than the bottle — easier to spoon out and blend to your own taste. 60.000₫ Prices are in Vietnamese đồng.
Food
- Cao Lau — the Dish That Cannot Be Made Anywhere ElseSame recipe, same cook, but take it out of Hoi An and the noodles fail. The reason is the well water and the wood ash.
- Banh Mi Hoi An — a Smaller Roll, Mixed Fillings and a House SauceIt goes by the same name, but the roll in Hoi An is smaller, the crust thinner, and what made its reputation is a sauce each shop keeps to itself.
- Com Ga Hoi An and Tam Ky — Rice Cooked in the Chicken StockThe rice is yellow not because turmeric was stirred in. It is yellow because it was cooked in the stock the chicken came out of.