Bánh Tráng Nướng (Đà Lạt Grilled Rice Paper)

Name: Bánh Tráng Nướng (Đà Lạt Grilled Rice Paper)
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Vietnamese (Đà Lạt / Central Highlands)
Ingredients: 4 Rice paper rounds, 22 cm; 8 Quail eggs (or 2 hen's eggs, beaten); 100 g Minced pork, cooked and crumbled; 2 tbsp Dried shrimp, soaked and chopped; 4 Spring onions, sliced; 3 tbsp Fried shallots; 2 tbsp Pork floss (optional); 2 tbsp Chilli sauce; 2 tbsp Mayonnaise; 1 tbsp Scallion oil or butter

A round of rice paper laid on a charcoal grate, an egg cracked and smeared across it, then dried shrimp, minced pork, spring onion, fried shallots and a squiggle of chilli sauce and mayo — turned constantly until it goes crisp and blistered. Sold outside every school gate in Đà Lạt for pocket money. Foreigners call it Vietnamese pizza; nobody in Đà Lạt does.

Source

Recipe by Vietnamese home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Everyday Vietnamese home cooking, made the same way from Hanoi to Cà Mau

Đà Lạt · the school-gate snack — An ownerless street food, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms the modern street-food bánh tráng nướng as rice paper grilled with toppings, particularly popular in Đà Lạt and Ho Chi Minh City and sold near schools and night markets, with common toppings of egg, ground pork, dried shrimp, fried shallots, pork floss, scallion oil, chilli sauce and mayo. The order of assembly, the quarter-turn rule, timings and quantities are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

KT Food Adventure Vicky Pham jasmineandtea

⏱ 20 min🍽 4 servings🔥 220 kcal🇻🇳 Vietnam🌶️

Dairy-freeGluten-freeNut-free

Steps

Light a charcoal grill until the coals are grey, or set a wire rack over a gas flame on low. Have all the toppings in bowls at your elbow — this cooks in two minutes and you cannot walk away.
Lay a rice paper on the rack. Immediately crack two quail eggs onto it and spread them thin over the whole surface with the back of a spoon.
💡 Egg first, and fast. The egg is the glue — it soaks into the paper and holds every topping on. Wait, and the paper curls before anything sticks.
Scatter the pork, dried shrimp, spring onion and fried shallots over the egg. Rotate the paper a quarter turn every 15 seconds with tongs so it crisps evenly without scorching.
When the underside is blistered and rigid — about 2 minutes — zigzag the chilli sauce and mayo across, add the pork floss and a dab of scallion oil.
Slide onto a board, cut into wedges, and eat in the next 90 seconds. It softens as it cools.

💡 Tips

The Saigon version folds the paper in half like a taco; the Đà Lạt original stays flat. Both are correct, and the argument is eternal.
No grill? A dry non-stick pan over low heat works — the paper crisps a little less evenly but the egg still binds.