Restaurants
Claypot rice goes down a treat
By SGT
May 30, 2007, 10:06

A dish that is a favorite of country people that of claypot rice, is ready to be served to diners at Gio Noi Restaurant.

On Floor 9 of the Que Huong chain’s Liberty 4 Hotel in downtown HCMC, Gio Noi Restaurant can accommodate about 250 guests at a time. Being luxurious and warm in design and specializing in Western and Asian dishes as well as Vietnamese traditional delicacies, the restaurant is an ideal place to relax and enjoy food. In particular, the restaurant offers a special dish, com tho, or claypot rice.

Claypot rice is a typical dish of Vietnam’s country people. Though it can be only an ordinary dish, it readily becomes a delicacy that appears in the menu of many restaurants citywide. Gio Noi is among the restaurants that offer the dish as a favor to diners — it is served as an option for the office lunch.

The rice chosen for com tho must be fragrant rice, which will offer a great scent when well cooked. After the rice is cleaned, the cook pours water into the rice pot to a suitable level as it will affect the quality of the dish. Thereafter, the rice pot will be put on to a pan, using the heat of the steam to cook it, not the heat of the fire as it will affect the taste. To make the rice more fragrant, the cook will put a few la dua (fragrant leaves) into the pot.

When it is well cooked, the fragrance of the rice combines with that of the leaves. The fragrance should not be too strong, just enough to tempt the stomachs around it. The cooked rice in the small pot is then poured into a bowl; though it is said to be small, it is enough to comfortably fill a diner’s stomach, not leaving a need for something more nor creating a feeling of having eaten too much.

Cooking the rice is an art form as everything must be just so. When being poured out, the rice must be soft and fragrant. It is wonderful tasting a spoonful of the rice with a slice of thit kho (meat cooked with fish sauce) and some leaves of persicaria odorata. The softness of the rice, the fragrance of the leaves and the sweetness of the meat make it delicious and special. If they like, diners can pour a little sauce of thit kho into the rice. It is all the more delicious with the scent and taste of the sauce and pepper.

The com tho menu in the restaurant offer three dishes, being a stir-fried dish, soup and salty dish (including meat and fish), squeezed fruit juices, and a wide selection of salads and desserts.

Claypot rice is served at Gio Noi Restaurant from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Monday to Friday, priced at VND35,000 per serving.

   Gio Noi Restaurant - Que Huong 4 Hotel
      Add: 265 Pham Ngu Lao St., Dist. 1, HCMC
      Tel: (84-8) 836 4556