LAFAYETTE, CALIFORNIA – There’s a new Vietnamese place in town here in Lafayette, California. It’s a little “broken,” often quite spicy, and ultimately absolutely delicious.
The new spot – here for a limited time – is Tam Tam Rice, the brainchild of Chef Tue Nguyen.
Tam Tam Rice is currently available as a pop-up through Local Kitchens in Lafayette. They were kind enough to send us a ton of items to try on the day Tam Tam Rice launched.
Spoiler alert: We negotiated a special discount off anything on the Local Kitchens, just for you, our readers! You can use our special code TELEGRAPH25 to receive $5 off your next order of $25+ valid 2/14-2/28, online only, one redemption per guest. Order over at the Local Kitchens site.
Not Your Typical Vietnamese Food
When most people think of Vietnamese cuisine, they immediately think of pho or dishes loaded with fish sauce and extreme levels of spice.
Tam Tam Rice is different. Their dishes focus specifically on Vietnamese street food.
Instead of the classic noodle soups, these are hearty, comforting rice bowls – the kind you might be served on the streets of Hanoi.
Chef Tue Nguyen is a rising star in the food world. She’s an example of a chef who has reached celebrity status not through the traditional route of the Food Network or a Michelin-recognized restaurant, but rather through social media.
The absolute best way to support our free, independent, local journalism is to share one of our stories on your Nextdoor or Facebook. Will you help us out and share this story with our community today?
Following massive success on TikTok, Chef Tue released a cookbook that won critical praise. The book – and her menu – focuses on the kinds of authentic food people in Vietnam might enjoy for a casual meal on the go.
My Review
On a Monday night, I ordered a giant feast of Tam Tam Rice dishes from Local Kitchens. As with all the food at Local Kitchens, you can have the items delivered to your door or pick them up at the restaurant. You can also mix and match between different restaurants on the Local Kitchens menu.
I ordered nearly everything on the menu: a pork belly rice bowl (Rich Pork Belly Tam), a chicken thigh rice bowl (Broke Chick Tam), jackfruit salad, vegetarian spring rolls, pork belly fried rice, and a variety of sauces to top it all off.
As soon as the order arrived, I was struck by the care that went into the packaging and delivery.
Each container had a clear lid, and the dishes were beautifully plated inside. I’m not sure by what magic Local Kitchens managed to get these to my door in such great condition – it seems like just one bump or shake during delivery could mix everything together, but they pulled it off.
The visual appeal was immediate, with colorful ingredients that were the first thing to catch my eye when I opened the big brown bag from Local Kitchens.
I laid out all my dishes on the table and started to dig in.
Tam Tam Rice’s main focus is hearty rice bowls. These are smorgasbords of cooked rice, topped with protein, and surrounded by all kinds of Vietnamese veggies and condiments.
The ingredient list for the pork belly and chicken thigh bowls was so long that it’s almost hard to list them all: “Charbroiled chicken, fragrant broken rice, Vietnamese pork & egg quiche, pickled mustard greens, pickled daikon & carrots, persian cucumbers, tomato salad, scallion oil, crispy onions, cilantro and sweet fish sauce.”
At the center of each bowl is “broken” rice, a specific Vietnamese style of preparing rice that makes it extremely flavorful and tender by breaking the grains of rice into pieces during the drying process.
Both the pork belly and chicken thigh bowls were delicious. They’re also, it must be said, very spicy!
There’s plenty of chili here, so if you or a family member don’t enjoy spicy food – as well as other strong flavors like salty and sour – these probably aren’t the dishes for you. But if you love bold flavors and a bit of heat, they’re perfect.
The pork belly and chicken thigh are marinated in a sweet sauce that reminded me of Korean barbecue. The broken rice underneath is fluffy and tender, while the spicy, salty, and sour condiments and veggies add the perfect contrast.
I also enjoyed the Vietnamese quiche slice on the side, a combination of pork and egg that tastes a bit like Italian sausage.
The goal here is to grab big spoonfuls, mix the rice with the other ingredients, pile it onto your plate, cover it with as much spicy sauce as you can handle, and dig in.
The jackfruit salad was initially a low point for me. The salad itself seemed fairly plain at first glance, apart from the little strips of yellow jackfruit inside.
But once I tasted these combined with the tamarind dressing and a bit of mint, I understood the appeal and enjoyed the rest of the salad. I could’ve used a bit more jackfruit, but overall, it was a nice – and perhaps healthier – addition to the meal.
The spring rolls arrived fresh and still crispy. Filled with vegetables and paired with a sweet and vinegary sauce that also packs some heat, they’re a great option for people who don’t eat meat or who want a lighter side dish to complement the rice bowls.
The standout dish for me was the pork belly fried rice.
It came topped with a perfectly gooey fried egg. Again, how Local Kitchens managed to deliver this without breaking the yolk is beyond me – but they did!
The rice itself is dense and sweet, with a bit of a sour kick. The fatty richness of the egg yolk, which you break and mix into the rice, combines perfectly to create something that feels like Vietnamese comfort food.
The sauces were a nice addition too, although not as distinctive as the 17 salsas we tried at Puesto.
The Verdict
Overall, we loved the meal from Tam Tam Rice.
It was refreshing to expect one thing from Vietnamese food and discover something entirely different.
The same fundamentals are there – the sweet, sour, and salty combo, the use of fish sauce, and the spiciness – but these dishes feel entirely distinct from the noodles and salads you might be used to.
Another interesting element was that each member of my family had a different favorite.
I loved the pork belly fried rice, but another family member, who isn’t a fan of pork belly, found it too intense. Likewise, my seven-year-old thought the rice bowls were too spicy, but enjoyed picking the sweet pork belly off the top and eating it on its own.
Overall, I would definitely recommend Tam Tam Rice to anyone who wants to try something a little more adventurous in terms of Asian food or who loves traditional Vietnamese flavors presented in a new way.
If you don’t like spicy food, it might be harder to find something you’ll love on this menu. Tam Tam Rice unashamedly focuses on bold Vietnamese flavors – so if that’s not your cup of tea, you might want to try something else from Local Kitchens. (I got Proposition Chicken for my youngest kids.)
But if you’re looking for a new culinary experience or you follow Chef Tue Nguyen online and are curious to taste her dishes in person, Tam Tam Rice is a fantastic choice.
You can order Tam Tam rice here. Remember, you can use our special code TELEGRAPH25 to receive $5 off your next order of $25+ valid 2/14-2/28, online only, one redemption per guest.
