For the Love Of Spring Rolls…
My husband and I love spring rolls, so when we stumbled across Elise’s private spring roll class and found ourselves with a few extra hours to spare, well…it was destiny! From the minute we signed up Elise was super friendly and helpful: she offered to answer any questions we might have about HCMC, make recommendations for food, and even book restaurant reservations if we needed help. So sweet! We met at a local supermarket in her neighborhood and as we shopped for ingredients she taught us about how food is integrated into the local culture. Very interesting. Then we walked a few short blocks to her family home where we were greeted warmly by her amazing mom and adorable dog. We sat at the dining table and started cooking right away, mostly chopping and grating, though I was “fired” from the latter because my grated radishes weren’t up to mom’s standards. That and she did it three times faster than me. LOL Once all the ingredients were assembled we rolled…and we rolled…and we rolled some more. There were only two of us but I swear we made 50 spring rolls! I was in heaven! Her mom then took them into the kitchen and showed us how to fry them. She made it look so easy, using chopsticks to fit far more in the fry pan than I thought possible. In no time at all we were stuffing our faces with the most delicious spring rolls you can imagine, wrapped in fresh lettuce and herbs with a homemade dipping sauce to impart even more flavor. We washed them down with local beer and somehow made room for fresh fruit for dessert. Oh, they also offered us some local sticky-rice desserts wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with coconut, mung bean, etc. Heavenly! It was a fabulous few hours and we walked away fat and soooo happy! Elise, big thanks to you and your mom for one of the highlights of our time in HCMC! If you love spring rolls, you’d be crazy not to take this class!
