Com Hen — the Poor Man's Dish, Served With Cold Rice

Cơm hến is the hardest dish in Hue to get on with. People who take to it eat it forever; people who do not put the first bowl down half finished. Know these three things before you order.

Three things that surprise people

One: the rice is cold, not hot. This is not carelessness. Cơm hến began as a way of using up leftover rice among poor labourers along the Perfume River, and cold rice separates into grains rather than clumping when tossed with a dozen other things.

Two: it is genuinely hot. Not token heat. People in Hue eat cơm hến with chilli and chilli oil at a level that visitors from elsewhere usually have to ask to reduce from the start.

Three: the shrimp paste goes in raw. It is not cooked, it goes straight into the bowl. This is exactly what gives the dish its base — and also what makes it smell strong to anyone unused to it.

More than ten things in one bowl

The writer Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường once counted more than ten ingredients in a single bowl. The usual list:

cold rice · clam meat · raw shrimp paste · sour starfruit · herbs · taro stem · shredded banana blossom · pork crackling · puffed dried pork skin · roasted peanuts · sesame salt · fried shallots · pepper · chilli oil

Alongside comes a separate cup of clam broth — the hot, clear, sweet water the clams were boiled in. For many people this is the best part.

The clams come from Cồn Hến, an islet in the Perfume River right beside the city — and the place the dish is named after.

The clams there are tiny, no bigger than a chopstick tip, and sweet. Raking them, sorting them and boiling them for the broth is the trade of a whole riverside neighbourhood.

How to eat it properly

1. Drink a spoonful of the clam broth first, before mixing, to taste the base.
2. Mix it thoroughly — cơm hến only works when everything is combined; eating it in layers ruins it.
3. Ask for the chilli on the side if you are not used to heat. Say so when you order, not when it arrives.
4. Pour the clam broth in if it feels dry — plenty of people in Hue eat it that way.

Three versions of the same thing

• Cơm hến — with cold rice, the original.
• Bún hến — rice noodles instead of rice, easier for a newcomer.
• Hến xào xúc bánh tráng — clams stir-fried dry, scooped up with grilled rice paper. This is drinking food, and the gentlest way in if you want to try the flavour without committing to a whole bowl.

Newcomers should start with hến xào or bún hến, and work up to cơm hến.

Where to eat it

Cồn Hến is the place to go — a few long-established stalls sit on the islet, just over the bridge. There are also good places in the city, mostly open in the morning and at midday.

Worth knowing:

• It is cheap. A bowl is usually a few tens of thousands of đồng. Anywhere charging a tourist price is worth walking away from.
• Mornings mainly; street stalls often sell out before noon.
• The bowls are small. A big appetite should order two, or eat it alongside Hue cakes.

Making it at home, and the shrimp paste question

Cơm hến is easy to cook and hard to get right, and the deciding factor is the shrimp paste.

The paste for cơm hến has to be thick, salty, aromatic Hue shrimp paste, added raw rather than cooked. Use a weak or diluted one and the bowl loses its whole foundation, leaving only herbs and peanuts.

If you cannot get Cồn Hến clams, small clams or cockles will do at a push — but nothing substitutes for the shrimp paste.

Read more

• Bún bò Huế — also built on shrimp paste, but cooked into the broth rather than added raw
• Hue cakes: bánh bèo, nậm, lọc — what to eat alongside it
• The Imperial City and Thien Mu Pagoda