It's a good ol' Southern dish, from the South of Vietnam.
Ninh Kieu is a district in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta, and com tam, the broken rice that also lends its name to this restaurant, is the small white heap at back left. As you've guessed, however, I didn't order this rice plate ($8.50) for the rice, however good the fractured grains might be at taking on other flavors; I ordered it for a late breakfast of pork chops and eggs. The "cakes" laid across the center of the plate are filled, not with the fish you might find in the American South, but with minced shrimp.
Previously: Restaurants that serve pho bo, Vietnamese rice noodle soup with beef, typically invite the diner to choose one or more cuts of meat. Thin-sliced steak, well-done brisket, flank, tendon, and tripe — respectively, tai, (chin) gau, nam, gan, and sach — can be ordered in combination or, by the purist, alone. At Ninh Kieu, a request for special combo number two (dac biet bo vien, $6.95 a number of years ago) secured all those cuts and beef meatballs (vien) besides. (Eventually. Note to self: Endeavor to make plainer that you're ordering the special combo number two, not that you'll be a party of two, or you'll be sitting alone and unfed at your table for a long time.) The broth in this bowl, to my taste, was overly sweet and lacked great depth and complexity; I'm overdue to give the pho another try.
Also shown: the accompaniments plate, centered on basil buds, and the storefront, with an awning that mentions "pho Cali." According to the guiding light of LovingPho.com, this phrase is not an assertion of regional style and quality (warranted or not) like "New York pizza." Though it does name-check California, "pho Cali" seems to be nothing more than an easy-to-remember moniker.
Com Tam Ninh Kieu
2641 Jerome Ave. (West 192nd-West Kingsbridge Rds.), Fordham, Bronx
718-365-2680
