“Com hen Song Huong” is
a dish served at room temperature, made with mussels and leftover rice. It is a
complicated recipe that includes sweet, buttery, salty, sour, bitter and spicy
flavors.
Com hen Song Huong (or
Com hen in short) is the very simple and low-priced specialty of Hue, the
ancient citadel of Vietnam. Accordingly, the way of serving this special kind
of food is of great ancience, simplicity and deliciousness.
Com hen has a
sweet-smelling flavor of rice, onion, and grease, as well as strange tastes of
sweet, buttery, salty, sour, bitter, and peppery-hot. You have to arrive to Hen
river-islet in the Perfume River to have the original Com hen. However, you can
find out the dish on some streets in Hue City. It requires 15 different raw
materials to prepare for the dish, including mussel, fried grease, watery
grease, peanuts, white sesames, dry pancake, salted shredded meat, chilly sauce,
banana flower, banana trunk, sour carambola, spice vegetables, peppermint,
salad, etc.
Com hen is always
attractive to many customers since it is tasty and, at the same time,
economical to anybody.
What makes this simple
kind of food popular is revealed in the great endeavor to adopt and process its
main ingredient – mussel. Mussels are sea species, which must be dipped in
water for a long while before being processed. Accordingly, people often say
that com hen somehow expresses the strenuous work of the maker.
Where to find it? Very
easy as it is popular everywhere in Hue and these days, elsewhere in Hue
restaurants in Vietnam. More favorably, it is a low-priced specialy, thus you
could eat it in luxurious restaurants in Hue or even in vendoring mobile shops
on the streets.
