Travel: Ho Chi Minh How to eat Cha Tom

When we used to frequent Vietnam Foodhouse in Megamall  more than ten years ago, Cha Tom is one of the dishes we always order.  I love this because it’s light and refreshing  and because you get to eat a lot of vegetables with it.   As I have written in my earlier entry, Cha Tom is an appetizer of shrimp patty wrapped around a sugarcane stick and grilled. Why on a sugarcane stick, most probably, to impart a sweet flavor from the sugarcane juice.

So a trip to Quan An Ngon is not complete without my favorite Vietnamese dish. 

The shrimp in sugarcane stick came with a plate of vegetables like lettuce, basil, mint, vermicelli topped with peanuts and chives, cucumber, pickled jicama and carrots, rice paper and the ever present dipping sauce Nuoc Nam Pla.  It didn’t come with a bowl of water to wet the rice paper, I had to ask the waitress for one.  For those who will be going to HCMC  and going to try this dish for the first time, let me warn you that, if you let  your server do the wrapping for you, in Vietnam they do it with bare hands.

These series of photos will show you how to enjoy this lovely appetizer.  

Remove the shrimp meat from the sugarcane sticks. Cut into small pieces.

Wet the rice paper with water to slightly soften it and make it pliable and easy to work with. Place a piece of lettuce leaf and basil leaves on top of the rice paper.

Place a piece of softened vermicelli noodles on top of the lettuce/rice paper.

Add a piece of shrimp patty and layer with more herbs, cucumber, pickled jicama and carrots.

Roll 

Dip in nuoc nam pla and enjoy!