Thai and Vietnamese fresh salad rolls are so delicious. They're healthy and flavorful, filled with herbs, vegetables and usually a taste of high quality protein like shrimp.
Compared to the fried ones, a plate of these is a light and refreshing appetizer. In restaurants they're always beautifully presented with dipping sauces. That's because person in the kitchen has made thousands of them! When it comes to assembling these things, the devil is in the details.
I thought I'd give it a try at home, so I bought a spring roll "kit" the last time I was at the Asian supermarket. It was kind of a rip-off, since the only thing in the bag was a packet of wrappers and a bit of dried rice noodle. About 20 cents worth of ingredients. Oh yes, there were instructions, but they had definitely lost something in translation.
By the time you buy the ingredients, cook the shrimp and noodles, soak the wrappers, and then try to assemble the slippery things, you have a time consuming and rather expensive project.
But it was fun to try and they tasted good, even though mine wouldn't win any Thai beauty contests.
I also made homemade won ton soup with frozen Chinese dumplings and a bottle of Japanese noodle soup broth. A big clash of food cultures, and it sure made a nice weekend lunch.
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