Vietnam – Goi Cuon

by Fauzan Anandika

Vietnam is number 13th for the most populous country in the world and located in the easternmost of the Indochinese peninsula. This country consists of hills and mountains. Vietnam’s geography makes their land fertile and suitable for farming and plantation. Their economy depends on rice farming and influence eating tradition. Vietnamese people will invite all the elders before eating and ask for their blessing before eating. Most Vietnam dishes using rice and rice flour as ingredients. They cook various rice noodles, vermicelli, and spring roll.  

There are two types of spring rolls that known by people, fresh or fried. There are differences between the Vietnam spring roll and other country spring roll. In Vietnam, they do not fry the roll and eat it fresh and it uses different types of spring roll skin. This dish uses thin and transparent rice-base spring roll skin named banh trang. They called this dish Goi Cuon or Cha Gio.

Goi Cuon is a fresh spring roll type, where they do not cook the dish and serve it fresh. Every region has its style Goi Cuon. They fill it with fresh vegetables like mushrooms, carrots, cilantro, beans sprout, and angel hair noodle. Some of the regions adding meat for the filling, add minced pork, shrimp, chicken, or tofu. Goi Cuon can serve as vegetarian food without any meat or with meats. To make it preserved, they usually fry the filling until brownish. 

You may taste the differences of Goi Cuon when visiting Vietnam since it was easy to modify the dish. Goi Cuon tastes better when accompanied with a side of chili sauce in the afternoon. To make Goi Cuon, you need two types of ingredients, one for the rolls one for the sauce. Let’s jump to the kitchen and make some Goi Cuon.

Rolls Ingredient

• 1 roll vermicelli
• 500-gram shrimp
• 1 tablespoon salt for boiling shrimp
• 8 lettuce leaves
• 100 grams bean sprout
• 2 tablespoon turmeric
• 10 tapioca sheet
• 1 bowl of hot water
• 2 carrot

Sauce Ingredient

• 2 tablespoon
• 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce
• 2 tablespoon hoisin sauce, can substitute with oyster sauce

How to cook

1. Boil shrimp with salt.
2. Soak vermicelli with hot water in a separate bowl.
3. Wash all the vegetables, boil it in hot water until a little bit soft.
4. Prepare tapioca sheet, add all the filling, and roll it tightly.

Sauce preparation

1. Roast 2 tablespoon peanut.
2. Add sriracha and hoisin sauce
3. Mix until blend perfectly
4. Goi Cuon ready to serve. 

Tips, do not reheat Goi Cuon. It will spoil the taste. Enjoy and happy eating.