Goi Cuon Thit Ba Roi - Vietnamese Summer Roll w/ Pork Belly

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with Goi Cuon so I won't write too much about it. Like I have said before I love just about anything roll in rice paper. This particular Summer Roll has thinly sliced pork belly, shrimp, vermicelli rice noodle, lettuce, cucumber, and Chinese chives. Most Vietnamese restaurant serve Summer Roll as an appetizer along with a hoison-peanut sauce, I always ask for nuoc mam cham (diluted fish sauce) instead. I'm one of those people that really appreciate a good batch of nuoc mam cham. I actually base restaurant on how well they prepare their nuoc mam cham. I really do see a correlation between how well restaurant cook their food and how well they prepare their fish sauce. Making the perfect fish sauce for dipping require a balance between sugar, lime, chili, water, and fish sauce, and if you can master that you definitely can balance the flavor in other food. I sure have a lot to say about nuoc mam cham therefore I will save that entry for another time.

Ingredients:

pork belly
tiger shrimp
vermicelli rice noodle
rice paper
lettuceEnglish cucumber
Chinese chives
nuoc mam cham

1. Boil a portion of pork belly in water until it is fully cooked. Remove, let it cooled, and then slice thinly.
2. Boil the dry vermicelli rice noodle in water.
3. Cook shrimp the shrimp, in water or microwave, and then cut in half.
4. Wash the lettuce and chives and let it dry.
5. Thinly slice the cucumber into flat strips.

To Roll:

1. Have a bowl of hot water ready.
2. Reconstitute the rice paper in hot water and wait until it's flexible again.
3. Add the remaining ingredient be careful not to over stuff. Fold the two side toward the middle and then roll foward.

Serve with nuoc mam cham and enjoy!