Chicken Spring Roll

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.

-Paulo Coehlo

Few weeks ago, my husband went to a Vietnamese restaurant close to his work. He liked it so much that he made sure that I will be able to try it. The restaurant was very small. It feels like it is the same size as my living room; but its size just added spice to  the restaurant's rustic feel. My husband said that the owner of the place was working in his company before, but now has  retired and settled into being a restaurateur. 

There were not a lot of people there. Aside from us, there is another family sitting on the table and a dad and his son was also there. Slowly, people arrived. Some college kids. And there are people coming in for their take out. I concluded that this place is on for a slow but successful growth. But I have to taste the food to seal that prediction. I ordered spring rolls as appetizer and Pho noodles as my main dish. My husband ordered different soup and my son ordered his chicken wings. My daughter got chicken curry- extra spicy.

When my appetizer was serve, the wrapper was still hot. A good sign. Then when we ate the rolls, we were oooh-ing and ah-ingg. Pleased on how good it was. The rolls was not spiced nor it was seasoned. It was the sauce that brought its flavor to its highest bar. It was really good, that I vowed to do it at home. I tried my daughter's curry but it was very spicy; the spice overpowered the coconut flavor  and you cannot taste the curry at all. So, I did not care much about it. The  chicken wings however, were very delicious. Aside from the spring rolls, I am putting their chicken wings recipe on my future menus. I am planning to make them this week and post it here. I am also going to make the Pho noodles .

I  went to the Asian store yesterday and sure enough, I made sure I get all the ingredients for the spring rolls and the noodles, so I am sharing the spring roll recipe today. I will be making the noodles this weekend, so you will have the recipe of that too.

Ingredients:

Cooked medium sized shrimps 16 pcs.
Lettuce leaves
Cooked rice sticks per instruction
Carrot Strips
Cucumber Strips
Basil leaves. Do not leave this out. This adds a kick to the rolls. You can use Vietnamese basil or the usual basil.
1/2 lb boiled chicken breast
Spring roll wraps

Direction:

Boil water in a medium size pot. When the water is how and boiling, add in the rice stick noodles. Around 6 minutes, the noodles  will be soft.Drain it and rinse in a cold water. Pat dry and set aside. Let it cool.

If you have uncooked shrimp, boil water and put in 1/4 tsp of salt. When the shrimp turn orange or pink, it is ready to use. Let it cool.

Prepare all necessary ingredients.

Get a flat plate and fill it with warm water. Place the spring roll wrapper one at a time. When the wrapper
 become soft, lay it flat in a flat clean surface and arrange the other ingredients on top of it.

1. Lettuce
2. Noodles then basil
3. Chicken
4. Carrots and cucumber

Roll then put the shrimps then roll again to seal.


Sauce:

1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp  sesame oil
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp rice vinegar

Place all ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.

Serve and Enjoy!