Spring Rolls Galore!

Wow, spring rolls!

Some people may not know how exciting creating your own spring roll is! No, it is not an egg roll. Egg rolls, you have to boil in a pot of oil and the type of roll is different! A spring roll is rice paper-based. This spring roll is like kind of a burrito-shaped, but smaller and in an Asian way! Like this picture above, being able to create what you put into your stomach, giving it taste and the vitamins that are given into this small piece of roll. What a way of to start eating healthy! I personally love spring rolls and I have been eating them for 20+ years of my life because of how healthy this is, and the benefits that they give. I love stuffing these rolls with all the greens I can put in there and other things; the lettuce, chopped Asian radish (pickled), chopped carrots (pickled), green mints (all sorts of Asian mints), the purple leaf, regular mints, the mint that you eat with balut (the duck egg), the heart-shaped leaf that smells like fish. On top of that, the proteins! Can't forget the proteins! Yes! The protein! The meat! It is what gives me the energy! Or for some people who rather have seafood or tofu in their rolls.

In the Asian culture, as the sauce for spring rolls, there are so many different types. The main ones that I know are the tamarind(sour), anchovy (stinks but sweet), fish sauce, and the peanut sauce. My absolute favorite is the tamarind sauce because I love the taste of sour. To top things off, I am also a fan of that rooster chili sauce, not the sriracha one, the one with the chili seeds, so I also would put that into the sauce. The taste! OHHH the TASTE!!! Dipping the spring roll into the sauce and taking a bite of the roll. SPRING ROLLS GALORE! Even the thought of being able to taste all these ingredients just from biting into a roll, so mouthwatering. The minty-ness of different variety of leaves, the sauce, the rice paper, the crunchiness of the lettuce and carrots/radish, and the protein! How can you not eat this? It's delicious and healthy! If you haven't tried such thing, I recommend this! Vegetarian? You could also eat this, just with more vegetables and no meat/seafood, with some vegetarian sauce! YUM!

How To Make a Spring Roll

Well before the tutorial, have the plate of washed lettuce and mints, a plate of pickled carrots and radish, a bowl of warm water, a plate of rice paper, and a clean plate for you. Make sure the warm water is not next to the rice papers because once the rice paper is wet, they get very sticky pretty fast. When that is all set up:

1. Take a single rice paper and rinse it with the warm water once, this process should take only 3–5 seconds, leaving the paper in the water will make it soften up too much. Don't worry if it’s still crunchy looking, you are correct! By the time you have put everything into your spring roll, it will already be softening up.

2. Place the rinsed rice paper onto your plate.

3. Now everything you want into your spring roll, place everything at the bottom but on the rice paper. Other things you want into your spring roll, just stack them up onto each other. Not the sauce! The sauce is to be put in a separate bowl so you can dip the spring roll in.

4. Now the rolling part.

5. Pick up the bottom beginning piece of the rice paper and wrap around the food onto the other side. At the same time, flatten down your food as much as possible.

6. After the end part has reached to the other side, fold in the two sides into the middle.

7. Now keep rolling until the end of the top end, but while rolling, keep squeezing the food.

8. Good job! You have officially made a spring roll! Now dip the spring roll into the sauce and ENJOY!