Vietnamese Pancake

Some time ago, colleagues at DDD asked me if I wanted to go with them to have Vietnamese pancakes for lunch. OK, I did not know what it was but I might as well try it.

What a Vietnamese pancake looks like is a large omelet with pork and bean sprouts. I really enjoyed mine.

In Vietnam I attended a cooking class with Anita and learned that a Vietnamese pancake is not an omelet at all, it doesn't contain any eggs. The outside is made of rice flower and the color comes from turmeric. The trick to making a really good Vietnamese pancake is to have a well seasoned wok, have it hot when you coat it with batter and make sure that your batter covers the wok evenly. Then you let it cook until it is just about crispy then add the filling. Flip it in half and let it cook a little to warm the filling.

Anita and I went to a restaurant where Vietnamese pancake were their specialty, there were about as many fillings as you could imagine.

Pancakes are eaten with leafy greens, my colleagues showed me how to use a lettuce leaf like I used hubsa (Moroccan bread) to grab and hold part of the pancake. You can also add other types of green leaves (don't ask me what they all were) for additional flavoring.