[Penang] Vietnamese chicken rice at Com Ga Mi Mi House

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Com Ga Mi Mi House is the second venture by husband-and-wife team, Penang-born Michael Tan, and Hue-born Laurent Nguyen, who opened their first restaurant, Saigon House Cuisine, back in 2017.

Com Ga Mi Mi House, located just two doors away, specializes in the relatively lesser-known Vietnamese-style chicken rice, plus a few others dishes in its tight, compact menu.

Our dinner yesterday evening consisted of:

1. The house special Cơm gà nướng - chicken rice, served with grilled chicken and chicken livers & an embryonic egg. My first time having Vietnamese-style chicken rice, and it was good - fragrant rice cooked with a subtly spiced chicken broth, with notes of turmeric and black pepper. The marinated, grilled chicken was toothsome and absolutely delish.
   
   

Each order of the chicken rice comes with a pot of Vietnamese Jasmine tea.

2. 𝗖𝗵𝗮 𝗚𝗶𝗼 𝗥𝗲 - freshly deep-fried Vietnamese spring rolls with minced chicken and taro filling. This was the best version of the dish I’d had in recent times.
   

   

3. 𝗠𝗶 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝗴 - flat rice noodles with chicken, shrimps, sesame-studded rice crisps and quail’s eggs. There is a popular saying in Đà Nẵng, “Don’t marry a Đà Nẵng girl if you don’t like to eat Mì Quảng, and you are not a true Đà Nẵng girl if you can’t cook Mì Quảng”. The noodle dish (pronounced “Me Wang”) is a Central Vietnam specialty.
   

   

Mì Quảng comprised of thick, rice noodles in a hearty chicken broth, flavoured with turmeric, garlic, black pepper and shallots, plus fish sauce.

4. 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗵 𝗫𝗲𝗼 - crispy Vietnamese crepe with shrimp and vegetable filling. Very good version here, too.
   

   

5. 𝗠𝗲𝘁 𝗫𝗼𝗶 𝗚𝗮 - a very Instagrammable platter of colorful glutinous rice balls with roasted and poached chicken, garnished with fresh vegetable salad, and pickles. Looks great, and tastes pretty good, too. The combination of aromatic, freshly-grilled chicken with sticky rice reminds me of the food we get in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
   

   

6. Dessert: A bowl of assorted mango-flavored jelly, custard and boba balls. It’s a new item to be introduced into their regular menu, so we were lucky to have a sneak preview of it. Not quite sweet enough for me, though.
   

   

Very enjoyable meal - definitely a great new addition to George Town’s list of good Vietnamese eateries.

Co-owners, Micheal Tan and his wife, Laurent Nguyen.

Address
Com Ga Mi Mi House, Bahari Parade
81, Jalan Sri Bahari, 10050 George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +6016-556 2301
Opening hours: 11am to 10pm daily

[klyeoh (Peter)]

It’s mangosteen season at the moment, and Com Ga Mi Mi is offering its seasonal mangosteen salad - Gỏi Gà Măng Cụt - which tasted absolutely sensational!

Owner-chef, Laurent Nguyen, explained that only green mangosteens are used for her salad. Even in season, these can be hard to procure and her husband, Michael Tan, has had to source for the unripe ones from as far as Kulim (Kedah), Taiping (Perak), etc. The ones we had here today are from Relau, in the rural southern part of Penang island.

I’d always loved Vietnamese mangosteen salad ever since I first tasted it in 2011 at KL’s MICHELIN Bib Gourmand-listed Sao Nam. Sao Nam’s version consists of ripe mangosteen segments, prawns, dried cuttlefish strips and grated coconut, with calamansi lime-sugar dressing. Toasted, crushed peanuts and sesame seeds provide the crunch.

The version here at Com Ga Mi Mi substitutes the prawns and dried cuttlefish for shredded chicken. Its Gỏi Gà Măng Cụt consists of young mangosteen (whole young ones, cut cross-wise), shredded chicken meat, carrots, onions, Vietnamese coriander, shallots and toasted peanuts, dressed in fish sauce, lime juice and other condiments.

Also had their house special Hoi An-style chicken rice (Cơm Gà Chặt). I’m not a big of this Vietnamese rendition which, I felt, lacked the subtle fragrance and deliciously-rich flavors of Hainanese-style chicken rice. Thai khao man gai, on the other hand, is of Hainanese origin, and done so very well by the Thais - I absolutely loved that one.

A standard serving comes with poached chicken, chicken lovers, hard-boiled embryonic egg, spicy (kim chi-like) pickled white cabbage, and a selection of raw vegetables and herbs: beansprouts, shredded carrots, cabbage, red cabbage, cucumbers and fresh basil leaves.

Chilled Lotus’ Herbal Tea (Nước Mót) - a refreshing, chilled concoction which consists of lemon, ginger, lemongrass, chrysanthemum flowers, dried lotus leaves, green tea leaves, and honey.

Left: Chilled Lotus’ Herbal Tea (Nước Mót), Right: Chilled Sugarcane Juice (Nước Mía). The Vietnamese adds lime juice to their sugarcane, giving the drink a light, refreshing lift.

Dessert: the colourful Vietnamese rainbow dessert (Chè Sương Sa Hạt Lựu). This included a selection of familiar Asian jellies like the green rice noodles akin to Malaysian/Singaporean cendol or Thai lod chong, dark Chinese-Hakka grass jelly, red-tinted waterchestnut coated in tapioca starch, similar to Thai tub tim krob, and tapioca pearls (a “modern” addition). I find Vietnamese desserts generally bland and tasteless, compared to those from other Southeast Asian countries. This one is no different.