"Amercanized" Vietnamese Spring Rolls

My latest culinary experiment was making spring rolls. I've been eating these at home since I can remember. Rather than unsuccessfully try to repeat my mom's version:


I couldn't find a non-fried version, but these are similar. Photo credit to Tea Time. Also, see this Random Photo Entry for a better version.

I had an "Americanized" version of this at Whole Foods and decided to try to replicate theirs. It contained tofu, clear noodles, lettuce, carrot, cucumbers, and cabbage.

So I picked up a few things, including this:



And made these:


The main "meat" is tofu that I pressed and marinated with hoisin sauce before pan-frying it. I added lettuce, spinach, some clear noodles that I boiled, shreds of carrots, cucumbers that I pickled with some vinegar+salt+sugar, avocado, and some yellow bell pepper.

You have to soak the wrappers into hot/warm water before putting anything in them, but after that, it's just like makin' a burrito. Obviously, I need to perfect my technique, but at least these did not fall apart too easily.

The best part was the avocado. Seriously, avocado + rice paper = mmmmmmm.