Com ga Cơm gà
Com ga is chicken with yellow rice cooked in chicken broth, eaten with herbs, a chili or ginger dip, and a bowl of soup. The central-coast plate is poached chicken, best known in Hoi An and Tam Kỳ.
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Hoi An’s cơm gà is believed to come from a Hainanese dish brought by Chinese immigrants, the same family of chicken rice eaten in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Why it matters
In Hoi An the plate belongs to the old trading port: a Chinese technique, then Vietnamese sides. You order it when you want rice instead of the town’s noodles.
Texture
In Hoi An the chicken is poached and shredded. The rice is a yellow pilaf cooked with chicken broth and turmeric. Herbs, a bowl of chicken soup, and a sour papaya salad come with the plate.
Taste
The salad is sour. The rice is fragrant from the broth and the turmeric.
How to enjoy it
Eat the chicken with the rice, the herbs, and the salad. Leave the soup in its bowl.
In Hoi An, the plate is shredded local chicken, rice cooked with chicken broth and fresh turmeric, rau răm, and ginger fish sauce, with pickled vegetables, soup, chili sauce, or a sour papaya salad.
In Da Nang and Tam Kỳ, the plate is fragrant rice, soft chicken, chicken offal, shredded green papaya, rau răm, and a little simmered chili sauce. Ask which chicken a Da Nang shop is cooking, because some serve a Hong Kong-style or a fried plate.
Where to try it
In Hoi An, eat the shredded plate in the old town.
In Da Nang, Hồng Ngọc, 193 Nguyễn Chí Thanh, is the Hong Kong-style plate. Tú Tài, 62 Hải Phòng, is the Hoi An-style plate.