It has been a while!
Things got a little hectic around here, but rest assured we
have found the time to squeeze some food adventures in between eloping,
honey-mooning in Thailand (where we spent a day on an incredible cooking course)
and feverishly working on our apartment renovation plans.
More on all of that another day, today I bring you something I promised a while back. A quick, easy, interactive, flavor punching weekend lunch alternative from one of my favorite parts of the world – rice paper rolls.
I have traveled to Vietnam a few times since living in
Asia and it remains my number one most loved destination. I love everything about the country from the
fascinating history to the people, the sights, the sounds and the distinctly
Asian smells.
Our last trip was to Ho Chi Minh. The organised hustling, bustling chaos of this high octane city makes for fantastic street photography opportunities …
.. and as on all of our holidays Andrew and I planned this trip around the food adventures we hoped to have and Ho Chi Minh did
not disappoint.
On our first night we arrived very late and our lovely host
at the quaint and intimate Ma Maison Boutique Hotel, reminiscent of
something you would find in the French countryside nestled down some alleys in a suburban district of Vietnam, drew us the below map and
pointed us in the direction of some late night road side vendors.
We had the choice of “big hunger” and “little hunger”.
We ate traditional Vietnamese at Cuc Gach Quan, a restaurant inspired by the owners Grandmother and her countryside
stall of Saigon past. Set in a French colonial house that has been stunningly
renovated using recycled materials and much creativity the food served is reminiscent
of countryside Vietnam, like Mama (or in this case Grand-mama!) used to make. I
will never forgot as long as I live the homemade tofu fried with lemongrass and
chilli.
Then there was the incredibly decadent French meal we ate at
Trois Gourmands where we were served homemade cheeses, that would have
rivalled what is produced in Burgundy, by a caricature French man who was rotund and heavily accented and finished off with a
Salvador Dali handlebar moustache. Cliché!
However, more than all of this, our most important food
adventure on this trip was our quest for the perfect rice paper roll. In the
name of research and rice paper roll lovers the world over we sampled hundreds
if not thousands to find perfection. That might be a slight exaggeration but
you get the point and we did find perfection.
It was down some alley, off some street, near some park in
one of the districts. That’s right, we cant remember for the life of us what
the shop or the street was called or how
we will ever find it again. We found it by accident and lost it the same
way.
The only solution is to book a holiday and do your own
research! It will be worth it we promise.
Rice Paper Rolls
Rice paper
rounds (available at most good Asian food stores)
60g of
vermicelli or rice noodles cooked
½ kg of
cooked and peeled prawns
1 large or 2
small continental cucumbers julienned
Handful of
coriander chopped
Handful of
thai basil chopped
Handful of
mint chopped
Small handful of sacred basil sprigs
Small bunch
of garlic chives chopped in 10cm lengths
1 portion of
“Taste of Asia”
Traditional
Vietnamese dipping sauce
½ cup of fish
sauce and add
2 red birds
eye chillies chopped finely
Squeeze of lime juice
Everything
that is required for this dish can be prepared up to a day in advance and refrigerated
until you are ready to serve. You can even prepare the rice paper rolls themselves and store those in the fridge if you aren't aiming for an interactive meal.
Firstly,
cook the rice noodles by placing them into boiling water, drain and rinse thoroughly with cold water for a few minutes until they have cooled. This
will ensure you avoid the noodles becoming gluggy and sticking together. Place
them in a bowl and refrigerate while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
Place the
prawns into a pot of boiling water and cook until they turn pink, drain and set
aside to cool. Once they are cool peel them and place them in a serving bowl. Chop
and prepare your vegetables placing each of them in a small serving bowl. Mix your
“Taste of Asia Sauce” and your traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce.
Once you are
ready to serve place all of the ingredients out on your dining area, along with
a stack of rice paper rounds and a large bowl filled with boiling water. Take a
rice paper round and carefully hold the very edges whilst dipping it into the
bowl of hot water, taking care not to dunk your fingers in!
Once the
round has become soft and pliable lay it down onto your plate and place in the
centre of the round a small handful of rice noodles, a prawn or two and a
handful of the herbs and some cucumber.
Fold in the
sides and roll up the round, moving it away from you. Dip it into your sauce of
choice and eat immediately!
Yield: 12-16
rolls depending on how much stuffing you place inside each one
Asides ...
Before my last visit to Ho Chi Minh I read the incredible
and moving story of Phan Thi Kim Phuc titled “The Girl in the Picture”. The Pulitzer
Prize winning photograph, taken by Nick Ut and arguably the most famous image
of the period, shows Kim as a 9 year old severely burnt by napalm running from
her blazing village in South Vietnam. The book chronicles her life and her story of survival from not only her burns but also from a repressive communist society. I recommend it
as an inspiring read.
