An Com is a pop-up from former rustic canyon sous chef Nguyen Bui. He opened a couple months ago and is doing some legit and delicious vietnamese comfort food on the westside. You can really taste the quality of the ingredients and care he puts into his food. Looking forward to trying more of his food and hope he brings back the caramel braised catfish.
Orders are taken every sunday at noon for pickup in sawtelle later in the week.
ga ro-ti - five-spiced roasted half chicken, tomato, country rhodes’s cucumbers
perfectly cooked, meat was tender and flavorful throughout, loved the soy glaze on the skin.
thit kho - caramel braised pork belly, quail eggs, pickled mustard greens
@Ns1, i thought there was a perfect balance of meat, fat and skin in this, really good. i wouldn’t have minded if this had some more funk and fish sauce.
ca tim nuong - marinated charred kong’s eggplant, scallion oil
this was so good, the smokiness and umami from the fish sauce was great. (this can also be made vegetarian using tepache as a vegetarian fish sauce). @TheCookie, @attran99, @hanhgry, @Chowseeker1999, @NYCtoLA, @butteredwaffles
canh chua chay - sour soup with tamarind, pineapple, elephant ear stalk, fried meiji tofu
another highlight, so flavorful with a great balance of sweet and sour. pour over some rice and enjoy. @JeetKuneBao, @noddles, @paranoidgarliclover
pastelito - banana jam, cream cheese, coconut caramel
com ga - poached chicken, burnt star anise rice, young ginger fish sauce
i did not love the chicken, it could have been juicier. i preferred the ga roti (pictured above) a lot more.
if not for the posted menu, i would have thought the rice was regular old plain rice, i did not get any burnt, or star anise flavor. the young ginger fish sauce could have been more gingery and fish sauce-y, it just tasted sweet. i’ll try to BYORB(Red Boat) to see if that helps.
and on a related note, i really dislike when poultry is chopped up with the bone. it creates bone shrapnel everywhere and it’s like playing chicken bone russian roulette every time you take a bite. feel free to revoke my asian card.
thit kho - caramel braised pork belly, quail eggs
just like before, this was good, wish there was some more funk from the sauce. I thought there was a good balance of meat and fat.
ca tim nuong - marinated charred kong’s eggplant with scallion oil, fermented pineapple
can I keep my carnivore membership card if I thought the highlights were the two vegetarian dishes? this was just as good as before, the eggplant had an incredible smokiness but didn’t overwhelm the palate, it was also pillow-y soft and was perfect to soak up all the umaminess from the sauce. chef nyuyen has really perfected his vegan fish sauce made from fermented pineapple that i didn’t even mind that this was completely vegan.
canh chua chay - sour soup with tamarind, pineapple, tomato, and kong’s squash greens
highlight and again just as good as before. great balance of sweet and sour and tastes great cold during this oppression.
banh cam trung muoi - rice flour doughnuts, sesame, salted egg yolk, mung bean
wow these were great. the outside had a thin shell of caramel that created a sweet crispy crunch and the dough had a great chew like a mochi. wish i ordered more. @Chowseeker1999
