Bánh tráng cuốn - Friday, May 23, 2014

Dish of the day: Bánh tráng cuốn

Where it’s found: My favourite spot for it is at a small shop on Nguyen Thuong Hien Street (between Vo Van Tan and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai) that specializes in bánh tráng trộn and cuốn; Also, it’s found all around HCMC at street vendors (often they will have both bánh tráng trộn AND cuốn)

Breaking it down: Thin orange-coloured rice paper, thai basil, quail eggs (inside the roll and another full one on the side), asian-style mayonnaise, chili dried and shredded beef, shrimp, fish or squid, green onion, fried shallots and peanuts

I had quite a full day of teaching, running from a private lesson, to the kindergarten (aka sweatville, Vietnam), to a private language school and then to a café for a final private lesson (10am-9pm with short breaks between for travel and meals)! But, I still had to try something new.  How could I not?

My dish of the day, Bánh tráng cuốn can be best described as rice paper rolls (roll= cuốn) with bánh tráng trộn (rice paper salad) filling, minus the thai green mango.  It costs about 15,000vnd ($0.75).  They also added some asian-style mayonnaise, so it was soft and moist inside.  The outside was only slightly chewy because they used fresh rice paper wrappers (unlike some bánh tráng trộn/ cuốn vendors).  Once they roll the filled rice paper, they use scissors to cut it into bite-size pieces to make it easier to eat.  They also threw in a quail egg and topped it all off with some herbs, shredded dried fish and peanuts. It’s definitely considered a “junk food” here. I paired it with a healthy avocado smoothie to round out my lunch though. And wow, is it ever addictive! 

My favourite place to get it, which I just recently stumbled upon, is on a small street called Nguyen Thuong Hien Street, close to my language school.  It’s a cross between a small shop-front and a street vendor, except they have multiple people working there, each with their own job, like an efficient factory-line.  They far surpass street vendors because they serve the cuon in plastic containers, not plastic bags, their ingredients are very fresh and they have a super-amusing machine that they insert in their banh trang tron that blows air to mix it all together, instead of the traditional method of using a plastic glove and mixing it with your hands. Vietnamese street food of the future!

The young Vietnamese girl who lives in my house even saw me with it and begged me to get some for her next time I’m there.  Will do, Mushroom! It’s definitely popular among school-kids, as the vendors often congregate around schools.