Banh cuon (stuffed steamed rice wrapper roll) originates in the north. Over time, it has become a popular dish nationwide.
Rice wrapper rolls are famous in different places such as Thanh Tri District in Ha Noi, Kenh village in Nam Dinh Province, Phu Ly City in Ha Nam Province, and Hai Duong Province.
But there is a special type of rice wrapper roll which has become a specialty of Ha Giang, a mountainous province in the northeast of the country: rice wrapper rolls with egg.
Weather in Ha Giang is cool all year round, so it is a nice treat for both locals and visitors when seeing vendors offering hot steamed rice rolls early in the morning when fog still hangs in the air.
This is a special dish because of the egg which is added in the process of spreading rice flour over a fabric-covered pot, and because of ground pork, minced wood ear mushroom and onions which are not put inside the roll but over it.One more special thing about rice wrapper rolls with egg in Ha Giang is the sauce that accompanies the dish. It is not the fish sauce that is usually found at most places serving rice rolls in many parts of the country but a hot broth which is cooked from pork bone and added with a stick of grilled chopped meat and scallion.
Vendors will only prepare the dish when guests place orders. When enjoying hot steamed rice rolls, gourmets can feel and see the egg yolk under the thin and white layer of the steamed rice paper and the egg white. Along with the light sweet taste of the hot broth, the dish is a perfect treat for any visitors to this mountainous province.