Vietnam’s majority of population is rice farmers and remains living in the rural countryside. Rice is the main food of the Vietnamese, from rice they make varieties of dishes for main courses, snack, cakes to eat during main meals, parties and festivals…some of those are the national dishes and represent for the back ground of the Vietnamese culture which derives from paddy rice agriculture. The Banh Cuon – Fresh rice paper rolls are the one to be mentioned as below.
There is nothing to be too complicated for having ingredients for the dish, finest rice flour, pork, black mushroom, aroma mushroom, shallot and some herbs such corianders and mint. Apart from simple preparation for ingredients, making the rice paper is a different story as the rice needed to be wet ground so that the flour is very fine and some water is added into the flour to make that rice flour liquid. The other ingredients like chopped pork, chopped fungus are mixed together and fried with chopped shallots. This will be used as topping for the fresh rice paper rolls at later stage.
This dish is often served hot so when walking along Hanoi streets you may see local shops making this for sale right on the street pavements. A big wag or cooker with a thin cloth layer covered on top will be use as a steamer. A full cup of flour liquid will be poured on the steamer cloth then spread in round shape, after 5 seconds covering for steaming, the fresh rice paper is cooked and then it is carefully removed away from the steamer with a thin bamboo stick and placed gently on a tray. Then some topping spoons of chopped pork, mushroom, shallot are put on top of the rice paper then it is folded and rolled in gently. Perhaps that is why the dish is called Fresh rice paper rolls.
Like other Vietnamese dishes, this Banh Cuon also needs dipping sauce – Nuoc Mam (fish sauce) with high protein degree. There are chili, black pepper and some lime and sugar to reduce the salty, some thin slices of Vietnamese sausages in the dipping sauce. In the local restaurants, this will be served with some herbs, corianders.
In Hanoi Old Quarter, Banh Cuon Thanh Van at 12 – 14 Hang Ga, Banh Cuon Hang Dieu at 49 Hang Dieu are some of good places to savor the dish.
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