6. Spring rolls

Spring rolls in Southeast Asia countries are similar to spring rolls in China and Taiwanese lunpia.

In Malaysia and Singapore, popiah is commonly sold. It is a fresh type of Hokkien-style spring rolls. Its thin skin is made by wheat flour and is not fried like other versions of spring roll. The filling is the mixture of ingredients such as jicama, bean sprouts, French beans, lettuce leaves, grated carrots, dried prawns, Chinese sausage, seaweed, shredded omelette, and sweet chili pepper sauce. Some stalls do let their customer to choose the proportions of ingredients to suit their personal taste. Other than that, you can also find little fried shrimp spring rolls in Malaysia and Singapore. This is especially popular in Chinese New Year period. Moreover, you can easily find different types of spring rolls everywhere in Malaysia and Singapore.

Popiah in Malaysia and Singapore.

Source: www.makansutra.com / www.the-inncrowd.com

In Philippines and Indonesia, spring roll is called lumpia or lumpiang, derived from Taiwanese name of lunpia. In Indonesia, lumpia basah is a type of wet spring roll without frying and is filled with bean sprout, carrot, shrimp, and/or chicken. It is served with sweet tauco sauce. Another type of lumpia in Indonesia is lumpia semarang, which is named after the capital city of Central Java and is created by Chinese immigrant there. It is filled with bamboo shoots, dried shrimp, chicken, and/or prawn. It is served with a sauce made from dried shrimp, coconut sugar, red chilies, bird’s eye chilies, ground white pepper, tapioca starch, and water. In Philippines, one of the popular spring rolls is lumpiang sariwa. It is a type of fresh spring rolls which consists of minced palm tree trunk, flaked chicken, crushed peanuts, and turnips as an extender in a double wrapping of lettuce leaf and a egg crepe. It is served with sauce made from chicken or pork stock, a starch mixture, and fresh garlic. Lumpiang hubad is simply lumpiang sariwa without the egg crepe. Another popular spring roll in Philippines is lumpiang shanghai. Obviously, this dish is strongly influenced by the Chinese cultural. It is filled with ground pork, minced onion, carrots, and spices with the mixture held together by beaten egg. Green peas are added as extenders. It is served with sweet and sour sauce or spicy sauce. There is a fried spring roll called lumpiang prito which is filled with bean sprouts and various types of vegetables. Sometimes, morsels of meat or seafood are added. It is served with vinegar and chili peppers, or toyo-mansi or mixture of sauce and juice of calamansi. Furthermore, there is a spring roll called lumpiang ubod which is made from coconut julienne or palm heart. Lumpia banana is a fried dessert made by slices of bananas and granulated sugar.

Lumpia Semarang (Indonesia) vs lumpiang shanghai (Philippines).

Source: www.sedap-sekejap.com / maxsofmanila.com

Lumpiang banana (Philippines).

Source: scentofgreenbananas.blogspot.com

In Vietnam, there is a spring roll called cha gio or nem ran which is very popular. It is basically a fried spring roll containing pulverized lean meat, crabmeat or shrimp, minced onion and garlic, bean sprouts, nuoc mam or Vietnamese fish sauce, black pepper and so on. Moreover, you can find fresh version of summer roll (not spring roll) called goi cuan in Vietnam. It is composed of lettuce, bean sprouts, carrot, cucumber, rice vermicelli, shrimp, and herbs like cilantro and mint. In Cambodia, you can also find a raw summer roll called nime chow which is similar to goi cuan.

Of course, spring rolls also quite common in other Southeast Asia countries like Thailand and Laos.

Goi cuan vs cha gio or nime chow.

Source: www.flickr.com / www.deliciousdelicious.com