Vietnamese rice paper salad (Banh Trang Tron) is what Andrew Zimmern describes as “Vietnam in a bag.” This street food is what I like to call a hodge-podge salad.

What started as a cheap after school snack for Vietnamese students has become a popular street food that attracts many tourists.

It’s a popular street food in Southern Vietnam, particularly Ho Chi Minh City. It includes leftover ingredients and condiments to transform unwanted broken rice paper into an unorthodox salad of amazing textures and flavors.

There are many ingredients in Banh Trang Tron but the most basic which are sold to school children is a small clear bag of broken rice paper with a few packets of flavoring agents such as MSG, chili powder, and tamarind sauce. Costing only a few cents, it is an affordable and tasty treat.

Nowadays, it has evolved to a made-to-order gourmet salad. You can find Banh Trang Trong sold by many street food vendors. You can get Banh Trang Trong with beef jerky, dried squid, dried shrimp, fresh Vietnamese coriander, unripe julienned green mango, chili oil, scallion oil, tamarind sauce, toasted peanuts, hard-boiled quail eggs, fried shallots and so many more. Everything is made to order and tossed together in a bowl. What you end up is a rice paper salad with an explosion of sweet, spicy, sour and savory flavors … all the essence of Vietnamese cuisine.

If you are eating at a street stall, you will be served Banh Trang Tron in a plastic bag along with a pair of chopsticks. It may not look so glamorous when eating out of a bag, but it is guaranteed refreshing and delicious.

Source: internet