Broken Rice: Bánh Khọt

It’s been a while since we last visited Broken Rice in North Burnaby. This Vietnamese restaurant located on Hastings Street has always been a spot where we knew we would get a good quality meal. Unlike most Vietnamese restaurants which seem to be hole-in-the-wall joints, Broken Rice seems to be of slightly higher ambiance with beautiful blue and white dishware.

On this revisit, we decided to stick with their appetizers and ordered the Fried Chicken Wings ($8.95) tossed in a tamarind fish sauce, Pork and Shrimp Salad Rolls ($8.25), and the Coconut Shrimp Cakes ($9.50).

We’ve had their garlic butter chicken wings previously and, while not on the same level as the wings at Phnom Penh, we thought they did a good enough job that we wanted to try their other flavour. The tamarind fish sauce added a mix of sweet and tanginess to the wings.

Meanwhile, the pork and shrimp salad rolls were stuffed full of vermicelli, shrimp, lettuce, and bean sprouts and served with a thick and creamy peanut dipping sauce.

I think my favourite dish of this visit was the Coconut Shrimp Cakes or Bánh Khọt. These amazingly crispy mini pancakes made up of rice flour batter and coconut milk are fried into the shape of round molds with a super soft and creamy filling of minced shrimp, pork and green onions. To top it off, they serve it with nước mắm sauce which adds to the sweet, sour, salty, and savory complexity of flavours.

4088 Hastings Street
Burnaby BC

www.brokenrice.ca