Spring roll
Spring roll (Nem ran - Cha gio)
“Nem ran” (or Cha gio in the South) is one of the most popular traditional Vietnamese food, literally meaning fried minced pork roll . The most common English translation of “Nem ran” is spring roll, though this is just a fancy name since the food has nothing to do with spring. The main ingredients of a roll of “Nem ran” are commonly seasonal ground meat, mushrooms, and diced vegetables such as carrots and jicama, rolled up in a sheet of moist rice paper. The roll is then deeply fried until the rice paper coat turns crispy and golden brown. The ingredients, however, are not fixed. The most commonly used meat is pork, but one can also use crab, shrimp, sometimes snails (in northern Vietnam), and tofu (for vegan "cha gio"). If diced carrots and jicama are used, the stuffs inside the rolls are a little bit crunchy, and match well with the crispy fried rice paper. Nevertheless, the juice from these vegetables can soon cause the rolls to soften after only a short time. To keep the rolls crispy for a long time, mashed sweet potato or mung beans may be used instead. One may also include bean sprouts and rice vermicelli in the stuffing mix, yet, this is a rare practice. Eggs and various spices can be added based on each one's preference.