Duck Rice Porridge

That title is a bit of a test. We were curious as to how many would stick with this post after seeing the words 'rice porridge' up top.

Known variously around the region as congee, zhou, khao tom, chao, bubur, and lugao, rice porridge may well be Asia's most underrated dish. Perhaps it's the unfortunate use of the word 'porridge' which, for most Westerners, conjures up images of gloppy oatmeal or lumpy creamed wheat. Maybe the untrained Western palate is to blame; for many of us rice is a bland, uninteresting side starch more suited to the task of sopping up sauce than serving as the focus of a meal. Whatever the reason(s), we find that fellow non-Asians are more likely to wrinkle their noses than lick their lips at the mention of any form of Asian rice porridge.

Chao (the Vietnamese term for rice porridge) skeptics in the Saigon vicinity, get yourself to Thanh Da district and prepare to be converted. Chao Vit Thanh Da's chao vit (duck rice porridge) is the Saigon dish that we most dreamed about after moving to Kuala Lumpur. That's right - not pho or bun thit nuong, neither bun bo Hue nor banh xeo, but the specialty of this cavernous eatery with its utilitarian stainless steel tables and no-nonsense service. The place is so well-known that most of the city's taxi drivers (if they're locals) don't need an address to drop you on its doorstep.

Chao vit is a divine sum of its glorious parts. There's the chao, a porridge of medium consistency made with broken rice and duck stock. Dished up from a huge kettle floating whole green onions and bits of duck liver on its surface, the chao is crowned with chopped scallion greens and a healthy mound of fragrant Vietnamese black pepper (among the best in the world). And there's the duck, steamed to velvety tenderness, chopped and topped with a flurry of crispy fried shallots.

There's also the dipping sauce, an intoxicating sweet, sour, and lightly spicy blend of, we're told, fish sauce, garlic, fresh red chilies (extra on the side, if you ask), sugar, vinegar or lime juice, and loads of grated fresh ginger - a 'heaty' element to balance the duck's 'coolness'. (We swear we detect a hint of lemongrass as well.) And, of course, there's the characteristically Vietnamese accompaniment of crunchy, cooling, fragrant fresh herbs and vegetables. Here, it's banana blossom, cabbage, basil, polygonum (known in Malaysia as daun kesom), daikon radish, and carrot, all doused with the sugared vinegar that the carrot and radish have been lightly pickled in (photo above) and sprinkled with peanuts.

A must-have addition to this feast is one or two of the banh trang (hefty yet airy rice crackers coated on one side with sesame seeds) being grilled to one side of the shop.

How best to tackle this dish is matter of personal preference, and one glance around Chao Vit Thanh Da shows there's no consensus on the matter. We find that this method works well: spoon a bit of chao into a small soup bowl. Add a chopstickful from the veggie plate. Grab a slice of duck, positioning it carefully between chopsticks so that it loses none of its fried shallot garnish, and dunk it in the dipping sauce. Maneuver duck to mouth and eat it over the small soup bowl. Working the duck off the bone will require some effort, but all the while duck a heavenly mixture of duck juice and dipping sauce will drip into veggie-crowned chao.

Deposit any bits of duck bone on the table and turn full attention to the soup bowl. At this point, rice cracker might be broken up into the bowl (or perhaps it's been done before the duck was eaten, to give it time to go half-soft). Finish the bowl, and repeat.

Every now and again mix things up a bit by enjoying both cracker and chopstickfuls of vegetables on their own, or dipped in sauce. When duck and veggies have been demolished (asking for another plate of vegetables is not out of the question) dump any remaining dipping sauce into the dregs at the bottom of the chao bowl.

Then, slurp, enjoy, and marvel at the celestial combination of hot and cold, raw and cooked, crispy and soft, and bland and spicy that you've just devoured. And declare yourself a rice porridge devotee.

Chao Vit Thanh Da, 118 Dong Binh Quoi, Thanh Da, Saigon. Tel 556-6640. Morning to evening. Look for the lineup of motorcycles parked out front. Ordering is simple - indicate the number of servings you'd like and ask for 'banh trang' to go with. Note: Chao Vit Thanh Da is about 15-20 minutes by taxi from District 1. If you catch a cab at your hotel the doorman will no doubt discourage you ('Why go all that way? You can eat chao vit anywhere1') Trust us - the extra effort is worth it.

Comments

[steamykitchen]

i clicked on it immediately! I love jook! just posted my post thanksgiving "turkey jook" - it's family tradition to make it using the turkey bones. sometimes i enjoy that much more than the turkey itself. esp if my sister in law over-warms up Boston Market takeout turkey and dries it out.

oops...did i just type that OUTLOUD???
;-)
j

[Ed]

Oooooh, RICE porridge! I love this wherever I go in Asia.

[RST]

Ah Chao vit! Finally a formal post from you on this. It's been years since you, Ms. Foodfirst, first reported (2003?) on chao vit in the old days of the Chowhound International Board.

Richard

[Nate]

I made turkey jook using the turkey carcass leftover from Thanksgiving. But duck jook - wow! The use of duck really elevates this humble dish. Add to that all those delicious condiments that make Vietnamese cuisine so wonderful, and you've got a great combination.

I wonder if anyone around here sells duck jook...

[Robyn]

j - Yes you did, loud and clear! Don't worry, I won't tell your sister-in-law. But really - Boston Market take-out turkey?

Ed - we do as well. Endless variations out there.

RST - right, and this is the place I raved about in that post, I think. It's extremely special, this version. Had it elsewhere in Saigon and was not overly impressed.

Nate - I know that chao vit is served in some Bay Area Viet restos. As to whether those version are as wonderful as this ... you'll have to sample them and find out.

[Pepy]

I miss bubur ayam, chicken rice porridge. Never try the duck one. Looks good

[Susan in HK]

Wow, Robyn, this sounds wonderful. I'll have to try it on my next visit to Saigon.

[Robyn]

Pepy - I love bubur ayam! Then again, I never met a bubur I didn't like.

Susan - this place is a bit out of the way, but worth the effort.

[Su-Lin]

I definitely clicked through as porridge is wonderfully comforting food...and as the weather here is cold and windy, porridge would definitely hit the spot! The duck porridge looks fantastic. I've never had to serve myself in a little bowl though...always just ate straight from the big bowl!

[Robyn]

Su-Lin - I agree. To me rice porridge is the *ultimate* comfort food.

[Andrea Nguyen]

I stopped calling chao/jook/congee "porridge" because to western ears, it sounds like bland food for invalids and/or poor people. (In some old Asian cookbooks, it was called rice gruel!) Chao can be and is great if you're recovering from a bout of bad health, like a stomach thing, or if you're low on money and just have a bit of rice and water.

But chao is an art form too. Vietnamese cooks use different kinds of rice and cooking methods to prepare stellar chao. And all those garnishes -- shazam, they add texture and flavor beyond the bland.

To build appreciation and respect, I present chao as "creamy rice soup."

And yes, Robyn, I owe you a chao vit recipe!

[Rowi]

I love congee! And so does my Swedish husband who learned to like it and love it after introducing him to congee as part of the breakfast buffets in some Asian hotels we've stayed at. The love affair with congee actually started in Hanoi. He would certainly want to have this Duck Rice Porridge. And so would I. Thanks for the post and enticing photos!

[Viet]

delicious pictures Robin, but the pleasure is yours! :)
when serving in a family, the duck meat, the greens, the banana blossom, the carrot, the cabbage, the herd, peanuts... are mixed together, then sugar vinegar is added... the mixture is pretty simiar to the chicken salad in the West, but it tastes a bit different due to the herbs and the greens). Yes, boiled duck meat dipping in ginger nuoc ma(m' is the yummy combination :)

[Robyn]

Andrea - 'creamy rice soup' ... brilliant! Yes, you do (owe me a recipe). But I am very patient. I know it will be worth waiting for. ;-)

Rowi - you're welcome. When you think about it, what's not to like about a well-prepared 'creamy rice soup'?

Viet - you're right, the pleasure *was* all mine! Interesting about the home-style variation. Thanks for the info.

[Lisa]

I adore rice porridge - didn't like it much as a child, but one's palate develops! And yes, so true that it is under-represented, misunderstood, largely unknown even, in the West. Marvellous food. Comfort food, yes, but such flavours! My grandma used to do a marvellous shredded chicken and chinese mushroom porridge. Um....thinking of it makes me miss both home food and my grandma....

Wish there was a way to promote rice porridge. Alas, not 'glamourous' food - though your photos of the duck porridge has done it lots of favours!

[Helen Yuet Ling Pang]

I love rice porridge/congee! And I also love duck, so this is the perfect dish for me. My mum used to make it for me when I was younger, though when I was ill, I only got fed the plain, tasteless version. Now she likes to add shreds of dried scallops to the rice porridge, to add incredible flavour. Thanks for this! Helen Yuet Ling Pang