Com Hen or Hue Clam Rice is a specialty food and one of must-try dishes in Hue city, Vietnam. It’s known as one of the Vietnamese foods whose ingredients are most. In local restaurants, besides rice, people also have rice vermicelli and instant noodle options (called clam rice vermicelli and clam instant noodle). In this article, HoiAn Day Trip Company will tell you everything that you need to know about Hue clam/mussel rice.
You may also like: Specialty Food in Hue, Vietnam
• Content by Tam Le, founder of HOIAN DAY TRIP CO.,LTD
• Designed by Giang Cong Minh, co-founder of LS E&C LTD and his team
• Photo by Dang Cong Loi, Dao Xuan Son, Tam Le & others
Must Knows about Hue Clam Rice (Com Hen)
– Other name(s): Hue Mussel Rice
– Origin: Hue city, Vietnam
– Ingredients: glutinous rice, peanut, black sesame, sugar, salt
– Where to find: street vendors around Hoi An Ancient Town, Hoi An Central Market
– Pronunciation:
– Served for: anytime during the day
– Price: 10,000-15,000 VND/cake
– Callories:
– Gluten free:
– Vegetarian: yes
– Fact: no mango in this cake!
– Travel blog: https://hoiandaytrip.com/hue-clam-rice
Ingredients & How to Make Hue Clam Rice (Com Hen)
Hue Clam/Mussel Rice (Com Hen) is made by boiled baby clams, cold and dry steamed rice, shredded taro stems, shredded mango, sliced starfruit, roasting peanuts, shrimp paste (mam ruoc), chilli paste, pennywort (rau ma), coriander leaves. It’s always served with a small bowl of warm broth of cooked mussels.
Baby clams must be small, fresh, and catched in the Perfume River, one of the cleanest rivers in Vietnam. On this river, there is an island named ‘Clam Island’, just like the one in Hoi An where the Hoi An Memories Land sits on.
Stems of bac ha (‘giant elephant ear’ or Indian taro) are peeled, soaked into fresh water until it becomes no itch and ‘sweeter’, and shredded then.
Shrimp paste, roasting peanuts, starfruit, pennywort, coriander leaves, chilli paste, pork rinds, mango are all bought at local markets today.
Local people often add ginger and a little bit of seasoning powder, to make the flavor of the broth better. Ginger itself helps to keep the stomach ‘warmer’ and to avoid stomach pain. In Vietnamese traditional cuisine or medicine, the clam broth is very ‘cold’. By that, the stomach of those who drink them may not feel well then. Ginger represents a ‘warm’ or ‘hot’ element, balancing the food, according to the yin-yang principle.
Com hen originates from Hue city in Vietnam. According to local stories, its ingredients are collected in the house when people do not go to the market. They seek cold and dry steamed rice from the last meal, pick starfruit, taro, pennywort and coriander leaves from the garden, and catch clams from the river.
How to Eat Hue Clam Rice (Com Hen) Like a Local
To eat Hue clam/mussel rice (com hen) like a local, visitors need to use a spoon to mix up all ingredients in the bowl first. After that, for a more spicy flavor, let’s add chilli paste into the bowl and mix again. Because the dish tastes dry, therefore locals will drink the broth. Somebody likes pouring the broth into the rice bowl in the beginning and then mixing everything together. Meanwhile, some other people like to mix and eat the rice first and until half of the bowl is done, they pour the broth into the bowl and enjoy the ‘wet’ version. The best way depends on your personal liking and habits.
If want to try bun hen (‘clam/mussel rice vermicelli’) or mi hen (‘clam/mussel instant noodle’), visitors can use chopsticks to mix.
Where to Eat Hue Clam Rice (Com Hen) in Hue?
Clam rice or Com hen is one of the most popular foods in Hue city, Vietnam. It’s sold anywhere, from street/pavement vendors, in markets, small to big restaurants. Sure, places with the sign name ‘Com hen’ usually serve better .
Here are the best places to eat Hue clam rice (Com hen) in Hue:
– Com Hen Hoa Dong on Ung Binh St, Con Hen ‘Clam Island’ that is an oval-shaped island on the Perfume River where people can harvest baby clams throughout the year.
– Com Hen stalls inside Dong Ba Market, the largest marketplace in Hue city.
– Recommended places by local people.
Better to Know about Eating Local in Hue
– Local family-run restaurants always serve better local foods than tourist restaurants. Places inside small alleyways potentially are hidden gems. The price is even more affordable at these lesser known spots.
– Restaurants where you can see a queue or crowds, food or drinks there are absolutely better or safer than others. Vietnamese people also avoid places without people eating, such as roadside eateries.
– Hot foods are often safe to eat for non-Vietnamese people. Refuse cold food (especially ones sold on the street, markets) or things you don’t see people cooking.
– Make sure that you learn some basic Vietnamese words or sentences to order foods, such as xin chao (hello, hi), cho toi mot (something) (I want one…), toi an chay (I am vegetarian), khong cay (no spicy), cam on (thank you), tam biet (goodbye) or numbers (mot/one, hai/two, ba/three, bon/four, nam/five, sau/six, bay/seven, tam/eight, chin/nine, and muoi/ten).
– Ask any local people you know (tour guide, driver, hotel receptionists, bellmen, etc) to receive their recommendation for good places to eat local.
– Raw vegetables are popularly used in local dishes, such as noodles or noodle soup or sandwich. They are often washed by tap water or unwashed. If can not drink tap water, remove or refuse them. Likewise, in most iced drinks (such as coffee or herbal tea), people add ice made by tap water also.
– On the 1st day and 14th-15th days of each lunar month, Hoi An citizens eat vegetarians. Many local restaurants and street businesses will be closed by that.
– If you don’t eat pork or beef, due to diet or religious restrictions, be careful when want to try local food here, if don’t see the ingredient description. Pork and beef are very popular meats, so they will be in numerous dishes. Street vendors may say ‘no pork’ or ‘no beef’ for better business, but please check before buying!
– Consider joining a food tour guided by locals who know much better about dishes in the city, including things never mentioned in guidebooks or on the internet.
– If have an allergy (milk, egg, peanut, wheat,…), ask anybody you know before trying or search for ingredients on the internet. By the way, fish sauce is popularly used to marinate Vietnamese foods, so make sure that you know this information if you’re fish allergic.
– Food portion (or size) here is often not really big (locals prefer eating with their family at home). You may try double or some different dishes for main meals.
– If don’t see the price on the menu, please ask in advance to avoid overcharging, especially when you are not a local. In Vietnamese, how much is bao nhieu.
– Most popular cutleries are chopsticks and spoons. To know how to use it, browse here
