Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Đĩa Rau Sống

Vegetable Platter



Vegetable platter includes: fresh lettuce, herbs, unripe fruits, raw vegetables. They are used for wrapping foods at the table and, of course, eaten by hand.
Lettuce: can be red leaf, green leaf, boston, Taiwanese long leaf...
Herbs: can be any combination of mint, perilla, spearmint, Vietnamese coriander leaves, basil ....
Unripe fruits: plantain, star fruit ...
Raw vegetables: cucumber, thinly sliced, fresh bean sprout

If you don't have access to star fruit, you can subtitute with sweet and sour carrot and daikon strips.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to further clarify that in this picture, it's pickled (sweet & sour) carrots and daikon that are shown, right chi. ? The reason why it's important to note this is because so many versions/recipes of Vietnamese spring roll, which this vegetable platter is part of, feature RAW carrots. That, to a Vietnamese like me, makes no sense. Raw carrots have a very distinctive flavor that clashes with everything in a spring roll. That's why if carrots appear, it's only in pickled form, or tossed into fishsauce as garnish, but traditionally never as a component in its raw, untreated form.

heh heh, cho xo^? tie^'ng Anh 1 chu't :-) tu.i my~ cu+' qua(ng ca` ro^'t so^'ng vo^ go?i cuo^'n la`m em ba^'t ma~n qua', chi. coi mo+'i ho^m nay mo+? ba'o ra, the^m 1 cha nu+~a ne` http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/dining/11mini.htm

Anonymous said...

leave 1 comment kho^ng tha^'y chu? nha` le^n tie^'ng, tha?y the^m ti' lu+.u dda.n nghen

The confusion about carrots might be due to one version of our Vietnamese Spring rolls, called bo` bi'a. This version has julienned carrots & jicamas sautee' briefly in a bit of oil, then we wrap that with lettuce, chinese sausages, shredded eggs, and carmelized dried shrimps. No raw carrots!

kiki said...

Heheh ....wow!

I've seen and had many fusion Vietnamese Spring/Summer rolls that have carrots in restaurant. I personally don't like them but I guess some people do.
My version of Viet Pohpia (bo` bi'a) doesn't have carrot neither. That's the version I grew up with and I love it. Just try to say ... there's not only one way to cook anything. But again, doesn't mean they're all good.

Chi. vo^'n di~ so^'ng ga^`n tru. so+? lie^n hie^.p quo^'c em a. ne^n ... kie^?u na`o cu~ng to^n tro.ng :)))