eggrolls in spring rolls

a chez mary b original, sort of

This dish is exactly what it sounds like, egg rolls put inside spring rolls instead of your typical shrimp or tofu. I was surprised that my Vietnamese friend had never heard of it, and I could only find one photo of such a roll from a Google search. I had a dish like this when I got Vietnamese takeout once, I swear it was at Rolls n Bowls in Metairie, but I can’t find it on the menu anymore. Regardless, this idea stuck in my mind and I had to make it. I tried it once before years ago and I couldn’t even wrap the whole thing up. But my skills have improved since then, and as you can see I actually got them to work. For the egg roll I used my favorite recipe that I’ve tried to date, from Papaya Petite. I also used her spring roll wrapping method. Besides the egg roll, it was stuffed with chewy rice noodle sheets, which are prettier and add more texture, pickled carrots, cucumber slices, handfuls of mint and cilantro, and a tiny bit of leftover avocado. The result? A somewhat crazy but very delicious dish. It’s all the flavors of an egg roll noodle bowl, but you can get it all in one cohesive bite. And of course wrapped in chewy, soft spring roll paper.

I served this dish with homemade sweet chili sauce from Hot Thai Kitchen. I love the little dipping sauces you get at Thai restaurants with eggrolls, but the kind from the bottle just doesn’t taste that great. I got a lot closer to that with this recipe, but I think it needs a little adjusting. I ended up adding more vinegar to round out the acidic flavor, and next time I would use a little less garlic and more chili.