Brodard Restaurant's spring rolls

Spring rolls. We all know what's in them: noodles, lettuce, shrimp, and mint. Dip them in peanut+hoisin sauce. Nothing special, you think, while you let out a lazy yawn. Well let me tell you, Brodard's is here to turn your sheltered spring roll world upside down.


Bam! Feast your eyes on that. First off, let's take a look at the roll itself. What is this? No noodles! Huge chunk of meat! Ok let me tell you. These are heaven in your mouth. There are different rolls you can order, but this particular one has a vietnamese pork paste sausage in it. "Pork PASTE sausage?!" you exclaim. Indeed, and it's delicious. Something else to rock your world: they wrap the fried eggroll skins into the roll. Also cucumbers. These are no ordinary spring rolls, my friend. Next, the sauce. No, not peanut+hoisin sauce...I actually have no idea what this sauce is. It is not spicy and it looks like there is some egg floating around in it, and it has a very light taste. Which perfectly compliments the spring roll's more robust flavors. Indeed, it serves to make it even MORE delicious.

The restaurant is one of the most authentic Vietnamese restaurants (outside Vietnam) I've ever seen. Authentic Vietnamese cuisine is served here - this ain't an average Pho restaurant. I haven't had most of their menu items, but they all look quite delicious. Also, they serve many Vietnamese desserts, which is what it is all about. Do yourself a favor and go find it if you're in the Irvine area. Warning: it's hidden in the back of a big plaza and it looks really ghetto, but that is what deliciously authentic asian food is all about.

9892 Westminster Ave
Garden Grove, CA 92844

Yelp

my bun cha (vietnamese pork w/ vermicelli) experiment

Moving posts from my regular blog on here where they belong!

Bun cha is one of the simplest Vietnamese dishes to make - it is grilled meat (usually pork) and greens (butter lettuce, mint, shredded cucumbers and carrots, etc) over dry vermicelli noodles. It's served with nuoc cham (sauce). I really liked the recipe I used! It tasted just like how the restaurants' make it.

Originally written 5/9/09
Last week, I saw that a friend was attempting to make this, and was inspired to try it as well. I love Vietnamese food - pho has always been one of my passions...my mother says I must have been Vietnamese in my past life. Which isn't such a stretch, I guess...actual Vietnamese ladies think I'm Vietnamese too. Like that one time I went up to the register to pay and the lady behind the counter started speaking to me in Vietnamese. And I smiled politely and told her sorry, no habla Vietnamese!

Anyway, back to the subject! Found this recipe online and happily set out prepping the night before my midterm. Needless to say, not much studying was done, but I did manage to finish the marinade for the pork and the nuoc cham (sauce) that night.

The next day came and I finished making the whole thing that night! Cooked the pork (no grill for me, unfortunately), noodles, washed the bean sprouts and mint, cut the carrots and threw everything together.


Great success!

Nomnomnoming-ly,
Carolyn