Rice rolls

Rice rolls (banh cuon) are produced everywhere in Vietnam. But those made in Hanoi have their specific characteristics. In most ancient days, Thanh Tri, a suburban village of Hanoi, was famous for its rice rolls. The rolls of this village, located on the bank of the Red River, were as thin as a sheet of paper, as limpid white as the surface of ceramics, with a flagrancy which was free from any smell of ferment. They are also soft and glutinous. In these ancient days every morning girls and women of Thanh Tri would carry each on their heads a basket of rice rolls to the city. At the request of a customer, the girl would put down the basket, remove the flat basket which served as cover. Inside each big basket was a cattle of fish sauce, a cattle of vinegar, a cowl of chilly, a number of cowls, plates and chopsticks and, below them, numerous layers of rice rolls. A bit of fat and some roasted slice of onions had been duly spread on each layer, of rice rolls. The girl would slowly take out each layer, roll it up, and put several rolls on a plate or bowl and hand it to the customer. These plain rice rolls dipped in fish sauce seasoned with vinegar and chilly were indeed a good breakfast for the common man. The food stalls and shops went further in serving rice rolls along with cork pie and fried soya cakes, depending on the taste of each customer. Fifty years ago, rice rolls experienced a new improvement: minced meat, prawn and mush rooms mixed with fish sauce and pepper were stirred and fried for a few seconds and then wrapped in rice rolls which were then kept warm in a steamer. The rolls were then served along with fish sauce seasoned with lemon, chilly and a few drops of coleopterous.

Thus, “Hanoi rice rolls”, as they were called, were well appreciated not only because of their taste but also because of their smell. At present, the vendors in Hanoi produced their rice sheets right on the soot and rolled them with the readily prepared core of meat and ingredients. Then plates of rice rolls are served to waiting customers, therefore those who would like to take a big quantity of rice rolls must wait for more than a few minutes. But gourmets are always ready to do so. It is a pity that their are no longer coleopterous nowadays, and one has to make do with chemical coleopterous drops which can in no way equal the genuine ones.