Deep-fried spring rolls (chả giò — southern Vietnamese; nem rán — northern Vietnamese) of ground pork, glass noodles, wood ear mushrooms, and seasoning, wrapped in rice paper and deep-fried until deeply golden and shatteringly crisp. The Vietnamese fried spring roll is wrapped in rice paper rather than wheat flour wrapper — producing a more delicate, more translucent, more dramatically crispy exterior than the wheat flour roll.
**The rice paper wrapper:** Round rice paper, briefly dipped in water (8–10 seconds — same principle as gỏi cuốn, Entry ND-04) until pliable. The rice paper produces a translucent, extremely crispy exterior when deep-fried — the distinctive lacy, almost glass-like crispness of a correctly fried Vietnamese spring roll. **The filling:** - Ground pork: 200g. - Glass noodles: soaked, cut into 3cm pieces. - Wood ear mushrooms: soaked, sliced. - Carrot: julienned. - Shallot: minced. - Fish sauce, white pepper, sugar. Combine. The filling must be well-seasoned — once inside the sealed roll, it cannot be adjusted. **The rolling and sealing:** Place a portion of filling along the bottom third of the pliable rice paper. Fold the bottom up over the filling. Fold in the sides. Roll tightly forward. The rice paper seals against itself from the moisture — no egg or starch wash needed. **The frying:** Deep-fry at 170°C for 5–6 minutes until the rice paper wrapper has turned from opaque-white to a deep amber and the surface is shatteringly crisp. The oil temperature must be maintained — too hot and the exterior burns before the interior heats; too cool and the wrapper absorbs oil rather than crisping. Decisive moment: The 170°C oil temperature. The rice paper wrapper crisps through a specific dehydration process — the moisture in the wrapper evaporates as the paper heats, leaving the pure starch structure that becomes glass-crispy. Too hot: the starch browns before it can fully dehydrate. Too cool: the starch absorbs oil instead of crisping.
Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford, *Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia* (2000); Naomi Duguid, *Burma: Rivers of Flavor* (2012)