How to serve Nem Nuong / Vietnamese Grilled Pork Patty

My previous post was about how to make Nem Nuong (Vietnamese grilled pork patty). This post is about how to serve and eat Nem Nuong. My favourite ways to eat nem nuong are:

• rice noodles with salad
  
• salad rice paper rolls or
• banh mi (in a baguette or crunchy bread roll)

The following explains how to do it all :)


For the Nem Nuong with Rice Noodles and Salad

Nem Nuong with Rice Noodles and Salad

(for 2 to 4 people) you will need:

• about 8 nem nuong patties sliced 2 cm thick
• herbs/ salad (for me I just use mint/coriander/chives etc)
• 4 noodles from an 8 rice noodle pack
  

Instructions:

Firstly cook the noodles according to instructions and drain well with cold water. This is to make sure the noodles do not clump together because of the starch build up. Make sure to wash well under cold water to prevent this. Put aside. Slice the nem nuong into thick slices. Prepare plates with equal amounts of noodles, herbs/salad and nem nuong. Serve with Vietnamese dipping sauce or just plain light soy sauce with chili sauce with granulated peanuts if you like.


For the Nem Nuong with Salad Rice Paper Rolls (for 2 to 4 people) you will need:

• about 10 nem nuong patties sliced 2 cm thick
• 20 rice paper sheets
• water
  
• herbs/ salad (for me I just use mint/coriander/chives etc)
• 4 noodles from an 8 rice noodle pack

some of the ingredients

Instructions:

1. Firstly cook the noodles according to instructions and drain well and put aside.
   
2. Cut the nem nuong up into thick slices. Put aside.
3. Have some herbs and other salads ready
   
4. Boil a water enough to fit into a wide bowl so you can just dip the rice paper sheet into.
5. Lay out the ingredients in order so it will be organised and easy to roll (hot water, rice paper sheets, herb/salad, noodles, nem nuong)
6. Okay the fun part! Dip the rice paper sheet into the water (make sure the whole sheet is wet so you won't get any dry bits when rolling (it will break) ) and out straight away. You do not want your rice paper sheet to be soggy and it will be sticky!!
7. Place equal ingredients in order. You don't have to but I prefer to do it that way. It should look like this:

Laying out the ingredients

8. Then neatly fold the bottom edge of the rice paper roll over the filling. Then fold each side of the rice paper inwards (do i make sense lol...i should make a post about this hehe). And then gently roll up the rice paper roll to form a neat roll. Repeat this until you make about 20 rolls or until you have used up all of the ingredients.

9. Now arrange the rice paper rolls neatly on a plate and serve with Vietnamese dipping sauce or just light soy sauce with chilli. However you prefer.

Yeah not neat rolls but you get the picture! lol

For the Nem Nuong in Banh Mi (crunchy bread roll) (for 2 to 4 people) you will need:

• 1 crunchy french stick cut into 4 or 4 crunchy long rolls
• 4 nem nuong patties cut into thick slices
  
• salad - mint/coriander/chives....anything you have
• pickled carrots
• cucumber
• chilli and soy sauce

Instructions:

1. First place the bread under the grill or a toaster until the bread goes nice, warm and crunchy
2. Then with a knife cut the bread in the middle and butter each side (this is optional)
3. Lay all the ingredients inside the bread roll
4. Drizzle some chilli and soy sauce (how much you like)
5. And then enjoy!!!!

Nem Nuong in Crunchy Bread Roll