Change of Course: Vietnamese Thanksgiving includes rice rolls, egg rolls

By: RUTH MARVIN WEBSTER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 21, 2007 11:41 PM PST ∞

This is the first Thanksgiving in decades that Vista residents Jane and Peter Sam will not be cooking in the kitchen, whipping up the annual holiday feast of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy. That's because this year, their daughter Annie is hosting the Sam family meal. "It is the first time for us," said Jane Sam, who, with her husband Peter, owns the Peking Wok in Bonsall.

But Jane Sam won't be completely off the hook. Annie has requested her mother bring a couple of their favorite Vietnamese side dishes to round out the menu -- her much anticipated spring rolls and rolled rice.

"My children love Mommy's cooking, because they have Daddy's cooking all of the time," Jane said, referring to the fact that it is Peter who created all the Chinese dishes at the family restaurant, learning to cook from books and from trial and error when the couple emigrated from Vietnam during the fall of Saigon in 1975.

One of the family's Thanksgiving favorites is what Jane refers to simply as "rice rolls," a thin rice pancake or crepe stuffed with shrimp or pork and dipped in a fish sauce at the table. "They are found everywhere in Vietnam," explained Jane, adding that Peter prefers a dipping sauce made with soy sauce, ginger and garlic more than the traditional fish sauce.

"I never made them when I lived there because they are street food, so easy to find," Jane said. After she moved to the United States, she learned from a friend how to make the thin rice batter, spill it across the bottom of the skillet, and to stuff and roll the pancakes. "Every Vietnamese housewife knows how to make these," she said.

Such tasty street food is a long-lived tradition in Vietnam, thought to go back to 100 B.C., when the Chinese introduced the Vietnamese to rice and flat breads during their thousand-year occupation of Vietnam. There are also accounts from the 15th century that mention Vietnamese kings traveling with dried crepes made with rice flour.

Sam uses dried rice wrappers for her Vietnamese spring rolls, first dipping the stiff white disks into warm water to soften, then laying them flat on a plastic mesh screen before stuffing them with shredded vegetables. "I use the carrot for color," she said "but the taste of the green apple is my favorite."

The dried rice wrappers, also called Vietnamese egg roll wrappers or banh trang, are available in many Asian specialty markets. And though Sam said she does much of her shopping for Vietnamese ingredients in Los Angeles or Orange County, she often finds ingredients from her homeland at the Oriental Market on Rancho Santa Fe Road in Vista.

"We pick up the best foods of each culture," said Sam of her family's holiday meal, who added that sometimes the older generation prefers the Asian dishes while the younger folks enjoy the more traditional American choices. That is with the exception of mashed potatoes, which she said, everybody adores -- young and old -- and especially Peter.

Sam said the family typically roasts the turkey on a rotisserie, glazing the skin with honey and stuffing it with a mixture of sweet sticky rice, shiitake mushrooms and lotus seed seasoning. "We do it kind of like a Peking duck, the Chinese way," she said.

And her son, Anhao Sam, 33, of Vista, said he thinks the gravy, made with Chinese five-spice seasoning, is a wonderful complement to the turkey. "It's a brown sauce, very flavorful," he said. "And it really tastes of five-spice, if you like that taste."

When the Sams first arrived in Southern California so many years ago, Jane said, they were usually invited to friends' homes for the annual Thanksgiving meal.

"We were always the guests, at first," she said. "And then I needed to learn how to prepare the Thanksgiving meal so that I could return the favor, and the friends came to expect something different."

These Vietnamese recipes are from Jane Sam. Many of the unusual ingredients are available at Asian markets.

Steamed Rice Rolls (Banh cuon)

Filling:

1 pound diced shrimp (can substitute ground pork)

2 to 3 black wood ear mushrooms, or Chinese black mushrooms (soak if dried), chopped well

1 onion, minced

1/2 cup jicama, peeled, diced

Dash of sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all filling ingredients and saute with vegetable oil until cooked through over high heat in a wok or heavy skillet. Set aside.

Pancakes (makes about 30 10-inch pancakes):

1 cup water

3 ounces steamed rice roll flour (Bot bankh cuon)

1 tablespoon cooking oil

Mix water, flour and oil; wait for 15 minutes. Use a nonstick pan. On medium heat, add some cooking oil to the pan. Coat bottom of pan with flour batter (like making a crepe). Cover skillet for 2 seconds. Coat cool dinner plate with cooking oil. Tip out cooked pancake onto plate. Add a large dollop of filling to the center of the pancake and then spread thinly. Roll the crepe into a tube, neatly tucking in the sides. Serve.

Papaya-Mango Salad

1 medium Granny Smith apple

1 medium peeled cucumber

1 ripe papaya, seeded

1 jicama, peeled

1 carrot

1 young, crispy mango, peeled

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, minced

Salad dressing:

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

4 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons white caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes

1/2 cup water

Garnish:

1/4 cup crushed peanuts

1/4 cup beef jerky bits (optional)

Shred each vegetable/fruit into thin strips (like coleslaw). Mix salad ingredients together; toss with salad dressing. Top with peanuts and beef jerky bits. Garnish with fresh basil leaves. Serve immediately once dressing has been added. Serves 4 to 6.

Vietnamese Egg Rolls (Banh trang)

Rice wrappers (Banh trang)

8 red lettuce leaves, cleaned

2 cups shredded jicama

2 cups shredded apple

1 cup shredded carrot

8 large basil leaves

2 cups rice noodles, cooked and cooled

Dip rice wrapper in bowl of warm water. Immediately place softened rice wrapper on damp towel. Reinforce center by placing another 1/2 wrapper in center of first wrapper. Then, also in center, place one half of a large red lettuce leaf. On top of lettuce, pile a small mound of shredded jicama, apple, carrot, a bite-size portion of cooled rice noodles and top with basil leaf. Roll wrapper into a tube, tucking the ends near the end of the rolling process. Slice roll in half before serving. Place on platter with ramekin of dipping sauce on the side, such as hoisin, plum or soy sauces. Serves 8.

-- Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com.