Exploring Com Tam Ninh Kieu: A Culinary Journey in the Bronx

Hungry City: Com Tam Ninh Kieu in the Bronx<br />Consider the range: bun rieu like a deliquescing sunset, muddled with tomato, annatto, tamarind and fresh crab crushed, along with its shell, into an intense, briny slurry; beefy banh mi bo kho, close to a pot-au-feu and served with a hunk of baguette for sopping up; and bun bo Hue, loaded with lemon grass, beef, pork knuckles and cha lua (steamed pork roll)<br />but missing the traditional cubes of congealed pig’s blood, at least on my visits.<br />You could add a nest of bi, translucent strands of shredded pork skin, dusted with roasted rice powder<br />and larded with nubs of pork; or fried eggs crackling at the edges, with hard yolks; or a fluffy cake of shrimp mashed until approaching mousse and bundled in crispy bean-curd skin.<br />The specialty at Com Tam Ninh Kieu is broken rice, the lowliest rice, grains splintered in the milling process, shunted aside and sold cheap.<br />(Com tam is broken rice; Ninh Kieu is a waterfront district in Can Tho, in southern Vietnam, where the owner and chef, Sinh Lee, grew up.)<br />She urged us to add lime, and after we had squeezed in one wedge, she reached over and squeezed another, then dumped in two spoonfuls of chile.