real taste of home

I was around 12 the first time my mum taught me how to roll nem (spring rolls). I used to hate it because I sucked at it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't roll them tight enough so they always broke during the deep-fry. I also couldn't keep them in the same size. One might be just bigger than my thumb and the next one would be almost the size of my hand. Though I sucked so bad, my mum still made me do it every lunar new year.

Nem is a staple in our lunar new year feast. Everyone has a different way of making nem. We all use rice paper as the wrap, but the stuffing can be really diverse. Some people use seafood and other fancy ingredients. But my mum's stuffing is simply the best in my opinion. It has pork mince, shredded carrots, vermicelli, shiitake mushroom, minced onions, beansprouts. Then she beats an egg and mixes everything well. My job is to wrap them up.

It's a tradition that we prepare food for the whole extended family in the lunar new year. Because each family takes a turn to host family gatherings during the seven days of the celebration. My dad is one of seven siblings. He's also the oldest so there's always a bit more pressure on my family to host well. I loved having everyone over to our house. It still amazes me how we could fit 30 odds people and children in a 2-bedroom apartment. But preparing food for that many people is stressful and tiring. Wrapping 100s odds nem was a very tedious job back then for a teenager. My back would start hurting because I had been crouching down for hours. Back then was also the start of the internet so I was dying to go back online. Yet I had to sit there and wrap those bloody nem.

I love eating nem. It's the reason that made me stay until the end until I finished wrapping them all. Usually my mum would start the frying when I was halfway through the stuffing. So she would always give me a cooked nem as a “taste test”. I was never patient enough to let it cool down before I took a bite so I almost burnt my mouth countless times.

Ever since I moved to New Zealand 10 years ago, I have learnt to cook a lot more Vietnamese dishes. I had to because it's the only cure for my homesickness. Nem ends up being one of the dishes that I like to make the most. Wrapping nem no longer feel tedious but therapeutic nowadays. Time seems to slow down while I stand there repeatedly scoop a mixture of stuffing onto a rice paper and carefully wrap it up. It’s true that consistency comes with patience and practice. My rolls are no longer various in sizes.

It's such a nostalgic yet comforting dish to me. Because it reminds me so much of my family and my life back home. Memories of when I was growing up in Ha Noi flood into my mind. Some of them I haven’t thought of in a while.