Hanoi's "com vong" season runs roughly six weeks, from late August through early October, when the young sticky rice harvested in Vong village is still soft enough to pound without turning to paste. Miss that window and you're waiting another year.
What Com Vong Actually Is
"Com" is young green rice — glutinous grains harvested before they fully harden, then pounded in stone mortars until they flatten into thin, fragrant flakes. The color is a pale jade green. The smell is grassy and faintly sweet, like raw sugarcane left in the sun. Vong village, now absorbed into Cau Giay district about 6 km west of Hoan Kiem Lake, has been producing it for centuries. Vendors carry it in lotus-leaf parcels or flat bamboo trays.
Com vong is almost always eaten plain, wrapped in a piece of banana leaf with a few slices of ripe banana — the sweetness of the fruit cuts the grassiness of the rice. It also shows up as an ingredient in "xoi com", sticky rice cooked with young green rice for a speckled, aromatic result you'll find at xoi stalls around the Old Quarter.
Morning: The Best Window
If you want fresh com vong, morning is the answer. Vendors from Vong village typically arrive in Hanoi (하노이 / 河内 / ハノイ) between 6:00 and 8:30 a.m. and set up along a handful of fixed spots: Hang Than street near the Long Bien end, around the Dong Xuan Market perimeter on Hang Chieu, and along the footpaths of Ho Tay (West Lake) on Thuy Khue road.
The lotus-leaf parcels go fast. By 9:30 a.m. on a clear autumn day the better vendors are often sold out. A standard parcel — enough for one person, wrapped with two or three banana slices — costs around 15,000 to 25,000 VND. Larger parcels packaged as gifts (for Tet Trung Thu season, which overlaps with com season) run 80,000 to 150,000 VND.
One vendor worth knowing: the woman who sets up at the corner of Hang Than and Nguyen Trung Truc most mornings during the season. No sign, no stall — just a bamboo tray balanced on a folding stand and a stack of lotus leaves. She's been there for years. Arrive before 8:00 a.m.
Photo by 🇻🇳🇻🇳 Việt Anh Nguyễn 🇻🇳🇻🇳 on Pexels
Lunch: Possible, but Secondary
A few permanent shops sell com vong through the midday hours. Hang Than street has two or three shopfronts that stock it from around 7:00 a.m. to early afternoon. By lunch, what's left is often the tail end of the morning batch — still fine to eat, but the fragrance has faded slightly. Young green rice loses its grassy brightness within a few hours of being pounded.
If you're eating com vong at a sit-down spot rather than from a vendor, look for places that serve it alongside Vietnamese coffee or ca phe sua da (연유커피 / 越南冰咖啡 / ベトナムアイスコーヒー) as a light midmorning snack rather than a meal. It's not a lunch food in the way pho or banh mi are — a parcel of com sits on the light end of a snack.
Night: Skip It
Com vong doesn't survive the day well. Evening stalls selling "com" in Hanoi are almost always selling older stock or, more commonly, a processed version that uses dried com in sticky rice preparations. Not bad — xoi com is genuinely good — but it's not the same as fresh-pounded young rice eaten within hours of being made.
If you're out at night in Hanoi and want something rooted in northern tradition, that's the right time for egg coffee at Giang Cafe on Nguyen Huu Huan, or a round of bia hoi (비아호이 / 鲜啤 / ビアホイ) at the corner of Ta Hien and Luong Ngoc Quyen. Save the com vong for morning.
Photo by Hồng Quang Official on Pexels
Where to Buy It to Take Home
The gift-packaged version — tightly wrapped in dried lotus leaves and tied with reed — is sold at a few fixed shops on Hang Than and at stalls inside Dong Xuan Market during the season. These parcels are meant to be eaten within 24 to 36 hours. If you're buying for someone, ask the vendor when it was pounded. Same-day is the standard you're looking for.
Some shops in the Old Quarter sell vacuum-packed com vong year-round. It's marketed to tourists and diaspora visitors who want to bring something home. It tastes like dried cereal. Don't bother.
Practical Notes
Com vong season in Hanoi typically peaks in September, though climate shifts have made the window slightly unpredictable in recent years — ask locals or check in mid-August to confirm. Bring cash in small denominations; street vendors don't do QR payments. One parcel is a snack, not a meal.
Last updated · May 26, 2026 · independently researched, never sponsored.
