Broken rice Trần Quý Cáp - another one in the top three.

Few weeks ago I had a post "In search of the top 3 of the best broken rice in Saigon"and according to one of my friends, who is a big foodie, we already found two and this place - "Broken rice Tran Quy Cap" should be one of that three.
I will not rank these three places in order of preference as I like all of them, but "broken rice Tran Quy Cap" has a special place in my mind, it reminds of my childhood. This place is not very far from my parent's first house and I can't remember whether they had a broken rice business at that time or not, but I'm pretty sure - they did sell home-made dishes for those busy working moms, who couldn't prepare a meal for family and work at the same time. My mom who has been a teacher for several schools at once, from time to time she sent me here to get some foods for family lunch.

               I can smell the five spice powder from grilled pork chop and the meat is not juicy to me...

When our family moved to the new house, in another district, I had completely forgotten this place until few weeks ago when a friend of mine mentioned about this place. I wonder is it the one that I used to know in my childhood and it was.
The owner is surely proud of their long history so they named the store after the old name of the street "Tran Quy Cap" where is located, right at the corner of the main street "Vo Van Tan" and a small alley.

            but the egg cake is very good, wonder what's the secret here? Fermented fish flavour? 

To me, the authentic broken rice is just good broken rice served with egg cake (chả trứng), pork skin (bì) and good fish sauce. My friend who has spent a lot of time to look for the real "cơm tấm" that he used to have in his childhood, he also feel the authentic - the best one plus a good greased-green-onion (mở hành).
The egg cake should be a speciality here as it's never ready before 10:00am, but the grilled pork chop - most popular side dish for broken rice these days is so so to me due to the five-spice powder's smell and not juicy.

                Pork skin and egg cake - the two original dishes for a traditional broken rice. 

They also serve another dishes for broken rice as Chinese sausage, sunny-side-up, roasted pork with saté, roasted shrimp...and curiously they have my favourite soup - bitter melon filled with pork meat, the melon is small but the soup is good.

                Here you can order my favourite soup - bitter melon filled with pork meat. 

                 They probably select small bitter melon to fit this tiny bowl, but the soup is good. 

   

So I already have the top three of the best broken rice, they are all good to me and to some of my friends, I'm sure everyone has another place in mind, especially those related to the memories, but I'm happy to share these and hope you will try or to share with us your favourites. 

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Broken rice "Trần Quý Cáp" - 260 Võ Văn Tần, Tel: 08 3839 4659, HCMC.