Spring Roll - Regional - Vietnam

Vietnam

• See Chả giò

The fried version with minced pork is called chả giò (southern Vietnam), nem, or Nem rán (northern Vietnam); it has been referred to as an egg roll or spring roll on some restaurant menus. Central Vietnam has its own version of a "fried roll" called "Ram." "Ram" is always made from whole shell-on shrimp or chopped deshelved shrimps and some green onion, wrapped in rice paper and deep fried. "Ram", like most food items from central Vietnam, are not widely available in Vietnamese restaurant overseas. The collective Vietnamese "egg rolls" are different from the Chinese egg roll in that it is typically smaller and contains ground or chopped protein such as pork, crab, shrimp (but rarely) chicken, taro, glass noodle, wood-ear mushrooms and shredded carrots. It would be more correctly referred to as a "Vietnamese fried Roll". It is sometimes called eggrolls even though no eggs are used in the making. Rice papers are always used as the wrappers in Vietnam. Vietnamese restaurants in western countries tend to use the Chinese eggroll wrappers due to the inavailability of rice papers initially. However, some restaurants have slowly reverted back to using rice papers now that they are widely available.

• See gỏi cuốn

Fresh spring rolls, sometimes called summer rolls, is a Vietnamese delicacy known as gỏi cuốn. Depending on region, spring rolls were made differently. Spring rolls refer to the freshness of the spring season with all the fresh ingredients, therefore frying takes away that feeling. Due to the lack of resources some families were only able to make vegetarian spring rolls rather than meat spring rolls. However, the typical ingredients include slivers of boiled pork, shrimp, rarely chicken or tofu, fresh herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, sometimes fresh garlic chives, rice vermicelli, all wrapped in moistened rice paper, served at room temperature with fermented soybean sauce (tương xào), hoisin sauce, or fish sauce. Hoisin peanut sauce, soybean sauce (tương xào), and fish sauce nước mắm pha (nước chấm) are all common sauces when eating spring rolls. A typical hoisin dipping sauce includes grated ginger, hoisin sauce, peanut butter and sugar. A standard fish sauce nước mắm pha (nước chấm) might be composed of fish sauce, lime, garlic, sugar, and red and green peppers. Fresh Vietnamese Spring rolls can be made at home or found at Vietnamese restaurants and some Grocery Retail stores.