My mom’s been on a roll (no pun intended): first banh xeo and now cha gio! Cha gio is Vietnamese egg rolls, but sometimes they’re known as spring rolls. I call them spring rolls, because when I think of “egg rolls” I think of the undercooked overstuffed-with-cabbage variety that you get with Chinese take-out. My mom’s recipe is made with ground pork, vermicelli noodles, dried mushrooms, and carrots. My dad has a recipe too, but his filling is shrimp, chopped scallions, sliced jicama, and carrots. I like my mom’s recipe better, because I ate my dad’s version too much over the years ;)

Vietnamese cuisine has two kinds of rolls. One is fried, as above, and the other is made “fresh”. The fresh kind is made with rice paper that you wet with some warm water, and then you fill it with meat, seafood, vegetables, and herbs. I see more food columns call these “summer rolls”, but you might also hear it being called “spring rolls”. Confusing, huh?

Tonight for dinner my mom cooked banh xeo. It’s a Vietnamese crepe dish. The flour mix is combined with tumeric and curry powder, which gives it a yellow color. You add unsweetened coconut milk and chopped scallions to the batter.

To prepare the dish, you grease a frying pan or skillet, and you pour a ladle or two of the batter when the pan is hot. In many ways it’s similiar to cooking an omelette. While the bottom is finished cooking, you add the filling, which is mung beans, sliced pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts. You fold the crepe in half, and it’s ready to eat!

The best way to eat banh xeo is to wrap pieces of the crepe and filling in fresh greens, add a slice of cucumber, and dip it in fish sauce. I find that too messy, so I generally shred greens and cucumbers in my plate and drizzle fish sauce on top and eat it with chopsticks. Much like a taco salad in some ways ;)