Bánh xèo (sizzling pancake), the word xèo onomatopoeically being the sound it makes when the rice batter is poured into the hot pan, contains coconut milk in the Southern variety and is believed to derive from crêpes brought from France during the colonial occupation.
The savory rice pancake is stuffed with pork, shrimp, diced green onion, bean sprouts. mint leaves, basil, fish leaf and/or other herbs, and dipped in a sweet and sour diluted fish sauce.
Again, without the sauce and the herbs, it is only half as good.
And again, my Mum's bánh xèo has been, rightly, forever imprinted in my sensory memory, and that's the reason why Julie, my wife, always asks for some when we are in Munich.
