A Recipe from Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s Kitchen
VIETNAMESE FRIED SPRING ROLLS WITH DIPPING SAUCE
I love making this easy and delicious recipe for my family. Your book club members can make this together. This recipe yields 16 spring rolls (4 pieces per person).
For the spring rolls:
1 package (2 oz) dried glass noodles
6 dry or fresh wood ear mushrooms
1 pound ground pork
6 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined, finely chopped
2 cup grated fresh carrots
4 tablespoons minced shallot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 extra-large egg
16 pieces rice paper (I use frozen spring roll wrappers, medium size. They are commonly sold in Asian supermarkets).
3 cups oil, for frying
For the dipping sauce:
½ cup warm water
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small red chile, finely chopped (optional)
Preparation and cooking:
Take the frozen spring roll wrappers out of the fridge 30 minutes before you start wrapping.
Soak the dried glass noodles in a bowl of warm water until soft, then chop into small pieces. Soak the wood ear mushrooms in hot water for 7 minutes, then finely chop. In a large bowl, mix the noodles and mushrooms with the ground pork, chopped shrimps, grated carrots, shallots, and garlic for the filling. Add the salt, pepper, fish sauce and egg. Mix well.
Peel one wrapper from the package and put it onto a clean plate.
Put two tablespoons of the filling onto the lower third of the wrapper and shape into a log. Gently pull the bottom edge of the wrapper over the filling, careful not to trap any air between the wrapper and the filling. Fold each side of the wrapper toward the middle of the spring roll and press down lightly on each end to eliminate air bubbles before rolling it forward again. Roll it one turn forward at a time, folding the sides in each time, until you reach the other edge of the wrapper.
Heat the oil on high heat and then reduce to medium. Add the spring rolls, turning them so all sides are golden. Remove from the oil and let the oil drain off on paper towels.
For the dipping sauce
Mix the water, sugar, fish sauce and lime juice well. Once done, add the minced garlic and chile (they will float if you add them last).
*Ensure the pork and shrimp are cooked to their USDA recommended internal temperature.
*For a vegetarian option, replace the pork and shrimp with cooked dry split peas and vegetables.
In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village to work in a bar in Sài Gòn. Once in the big city, the young girls learn how to drink and flirt (and more) with American GIs in return for money.
Decades later, an American veteran, Dan, returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD; instead, secrets he thought he had buried surface and threaten his marriage. At the same time, Phong—the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman—embarks on a search to find both his parents and a way out of Việt Nam to a better life in the United States for himself, his wife Bình, and his children.
Past and present converge as these characters come together to confront decisions made during a time of war—decisions that reverberate throughout one another’s lives and ultamately allow them and find common ground across race, generation, culture, and language. Immersive, moving, and lyrical, Dust Child tells an unforgettable story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies with hard-earned wisdom, compassion, courage, and joy.
With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War. Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore apart not just her beloved country, but also her family.
Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Việt Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope.
The Mountains Sing is celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s first novel in English.
New York Times Editors’ Choice Selection
Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Awards Fellowship
“[An] absorbing, stirring novel . . . that, in more than one sense, remedies history.” —The New York Times Book Review
