Com Nieu Que Ngoai Can Tho: A home-cooked meal, evoking rustic childhood memories
There are days when you just want to find a truly peaceful place to slow down, sitting by a hot tray of food with rustic dishes just like when you were little. No need for delicacies, just a fragrant clay pot of rice, a few familiar braised and stir-fried dishes are enough to evoke the meals of your grandmother and mother from years ago. And if you are also looking for that feeling amidst the bustling city, Com Nieu Que Ngoai Can Tho will take you back to those memories.
Address: 62 Le Loi, Cai Khe, Can Tho.
Opening hours: 10:00 - 20:00
Phone number: 0919 655 564
What makes the restaurant sympathetic right from the first steps is its deeply Mekong Delta style space. The wood-brown tones combined with warm yellow hues bring a gentle, peaceful feeling. The rustic wooden tables and chairs, familiar items such as water jars, bamboo winnowing baskets, oil lamps, or the skillfully decorated green corners make everything feel close, as if returning to grandmother's house, familiar enough to sit down and eat a family meal after a long day. The space is not too elaborate but cozy enough so that every meal brings a sense of familiarity.
The restaurant's menu is quite diverse with many familiar rustic dishes. Starting the meal is the beef jerky and mango salad (Goi Xoai Kho Bo). The salad has a fairly harmonious taste; the mango retains its freshness and crunchiness, with a moderate mild sourness making it very easy to eat. The mixing sauce is well-seasoned, helping the ingredients blend together. The beef jerky adds a bit of salty-sweet flavor and chewiness, creating a refreshing appetizer that stimulates the taste buds.
Coming to the stir-fried beef with Tonkin jasmine (Thien Ly Xao Bo), the dish still retains the characteristic aroma of the Tonkin jasmine flowers. The young shoots of the Tonkin jasmine have a distinct chewiness rather than being soft and tender, so it will suit those who like a crunchy, slightly chewy texture. The beef is stir-fried just right, retaining its natural sweetness, combining with the Tonkin jasmine to create a quite harmonious whole.
The most impressive dish in this meal is perhaps the braised pangasius (Ca Bong Lau). The fish is richly braised, with a slightly thick sauce that evenly marinates each fiber of the meat. The fish meat is fatty, soft, and especially has very few bones, making it very "satisfying" to eat. Just pouring a little braising sauce over the hot rice is enough to make the meal perfectly well-rounded.
The braised pork spare ribs (Suon Non Kho) are also a dish worth trying. The ribs are braised just right; the meat is soft, infused with spices but still retains a certain firmness. The flavor is not overly strong, so eating it with rice is very fitting, and the more you eat, the more you can feel the rustic charm of home-cooked meals.
As for the white rice, the grains are cooked to be slightly fluffy and mildly dry instead of being very sticky. For those who love soft and sticky rice, they might wish the rice was a bit moister, but if you are used to eating fluffy rice, the restaurant's rice will suit your taste quite well, especially when eaten with braised dishes as it helps balance the flavors.
