After spending multiple hours cooking, we finally got to enjoy our meal together. The hard work and community that nem rán requires makes the taste even better.
Nem rán requires a lot of time to prepare! I started by chopping all of my vegetables. I used cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, green onion and bean sprouts. I then cooked my noodles. Nem rán is made with glass noodles, a specific type of noodle that is made in local villages near my school! I then mixed my pork meat with my vegetables and noodles to make the filling.
The next part is the most important. I put a little bit of filling into the rice paper and roll it up and fold the edges. Wrapping each spring roll is the longest part of the recipe! Once they are all wrapped, I fry them in hot oil until they are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Some families freeze their extra rolls, so they can eat them for many days after preparing.
The food is connected to the local environment. All the ingredients are found around Việt Nam. The vegetables are all grown locally. The noodles are made in local villages, and the rice paper is made from rice that is also grown locally. Nem rán brings together a lot of flavors of Việt Nam!
