January 23 was the first day of the Chinese New Year, or should I rather say of the “Lunar New Year”, since it is celebrated all over Asia as well. This year, to celebrate it, me and le bf decided to cook ourselves a nice little dinner…

… and ended up cooking some Vietnamese spring rolls! We ate them with rice noodles and, of course, nuoc mam! Om nom nom nom!! Do you want to see how we did it?

First, dip the dried noodles and shiitake mushrooms into warm water. I bought a very handy bowl on YesStyle that I usually use to prepare and eat my ramens at work, during lunch time. But as I needed additional bowls to prepare this awesome dinner, I decided to bring it back home for the occasion! ^^

If you want to know more about the bowl I used, please click here:

Noodle Cup: http://www.yesstyle.com/en/info.html/pid.1027219046

Grate some carrots, cut onions into small bits, and add them in a bigger bowl with minced pork…

… then cut the noodles and mushrooms you left soaking into small bits and add them in the bowl as well (don’t forget to trim off the stems of the shiitake as they are the harder bit and cannot be eaten!). Add an egg to help the filling stick together.

While I was busy preparing the stuffing and the nuoc mam, le bf was responsible for preparing the rice paper and making the spring rolls! Here he is, damping the rice paper on both sides so it is ready to roll!

Please note le bf is wearing YesStyle clothes. Yes, I managed to convert him!! \o/

Dress Shirt: http://www.yesstyle.com/en/info.html/pid.1024268102
Cardigan: http://www.yesstyle.com/en/mr-park-v-neck-cardigan-black-l/info.html/pid.1028378100
Belt: http://www.yesstyle.com/en/black-asuka-grommet-accent-belt-black-l/info.html/pid.1024720832

Add the filling in the middle of the rice paper…

… once rolled, it should look like this. You will need to practice quite a lot to get to this result, as le bf quickly realised.

As I don’t have anything to deep fry the spring rolls in, we had to improvise and just used a frying pan.

Rule number one when you cook Vietnamese food: always prepare sum salads and herbs on the side!!!

Tadaaaaah~~~!! It may not look like it, but this meal was soooo filling! We had a nice, quiet evening, but it was a good opportunity to spend some time as a couple.

Om nom nom nom! That’s it, I hope you enjoyed it! Happy Lunar New Year to you all, wish you happiness, health and fortune (yes, it is important)! And what did YOU do for the Lunar New Year?