Nothing brings me warmth like a traditional Vietnamese family-style dining. I was invited to share this wonderful meal with my dear friend, Fiona and her family, this past weekend at Thuan Kieu Com Tam. This Houston establishment is known for their rice dishes and family-style entrees. All of my childhood favorites were ordered. Pictured above, clockwise from the top left is steamed chicken with ginger fish sauce, eggrolls, spring rolls, caramelized catfish in a clay pot, lotus stem salad, and in the center we have sweet & sour catfish soup.

As the waiter continued to bring out each dish, I was flooded with very fond memories of what it was like at the dinner table in my family’s home. Each dish had a special memory in my heart and I’m so grateful to get to experience this thousand of miles away from home with wonderful people I’ve met that I have come to see as my own family.  We talked and laughed heartily as we shared our stories while taking bites in between. No dish was left untouched. We couldn’t stop eating, as we kept asking for our bowl to be filled over and over again with rice.

My favorite dish is the caramelized catfish in a clay pot, cá kho tộ.  This is simply catfish braised in a clay pot with garlic, shallots, fish sauce, soy sauce, coconut juice, seasoned with fresh ground pepper, garnished with fried pork fat and sliced chili for heat. Growing up, I had a traumatic incident with a fish bone stuck in my throat, so I refused to eat fish for a good part of my childhood into my adult years. The dark caramelized sauce of the dish didn’t help the cause as I feared it was hiding those pesky bones and I was determined not to be a victim again. Fast forward to five years ago, I decided to give it another try and let’s just say it was heaven. Now, I can’t get enough of it! Soon, I’ll have to share my dad’s cá kho tộ recipe with you.

No Asian meal is complete without soup! One of the most popular and common soup you’ll find at any Vietnamese household is sweet and sour catfish soup, canh chua cá. This soup is tamarind-based with shallots, garlic, lemongrass, catfish, pineapple, tomato, bean sprouts, taro stems, and rice paddy herb. My favorite ingredient is bac ha or Vietnamese taro stems, the green spongy looking plant on top in the picture to the right. I love how it absorbs the soup and a bite of it is an amazing explosion of sweet and sour in your mouth.

Stir-fry water spinach with garlic, rau muống xào tỏi, is a simple and easy dish to whip up in minutes. The crunchy stem is the best part! My mom loves to cook this dish with an extra ingredient, fermented bean curd. The bean curd gives it an extra earthy flavor that I love to eat it with rice.

Pork and shrimp lotus stem salad, gỏi ngó sen tôm thịt, is super refreshing. It is a variety of thinly shaved cucumbers, carrots, onions, and lotus stems tossed in a citrus fish sauce garnished with crushed peanuts and coriander leaves. This is a staple favorite at family gatherings and we often eat it with shrimp chips.

Who doesn’t love a good egg roll? These were perfectly seasoned and fried to a golden brown. It was great to see it come with a variety of herbs for wrapping and dipping into the accompanied fish sauce. Egg rolls are on top of the list of foods at every Asian party I’ve been to.

Steamed chicken with ginger, gà hấp gừng, is nothing special in itself, but the ginger fish sauce dip takes this dish to a whole different level. There must be a good balance of ginger in the fish sauce to elevate the basic flavor of the chicken. Too much ginger will overpower it. You can tell from the texture of the chicken it’s fresh and not frozen, which is a huge plus in my books. The ginger fish sauce from Thuan Kieu Com Tam is nicely done. Good enough for me to buy a small bottle to take home.

I love to eat spring rolls!!! I can eat it every day if I could. There are so many types of spring rolls, but one of my favorites is bò bía. Bò Bía is made of several key ingredients: jicama, carrots, Chinese sausage, fried egg, dried shrimp, lettuce, and herbs.  The julienne jicama and carrots are slightly stir-fry with garlic. It is then placed on a bed of lettuce and herbs topped with thinly sliced fried egg and Chinese sausage, wrapped in rice paper. Of course, you can’t forget the peanut dipping sauce! The peanut sauce was thick at Thuan Kieu Com Tam and not how I preferably like it, but it was nonetheless good. 

I left Thuan Kieu Com Tam with a full belly and happily satisfied. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by good food and good company, which are the two must-have things in my life. 

Thuan Kieu Com Tam: 10792 Bellaire Blvd – Houston, TX 77072 – (281) 988-8865