I am still lucky enough to have a few days off for “Spring Break”. One of my goal during this week is to cook something new. Last week at the grocery store, I came across some Thai styled rice sticks, or Vietnamese Banh Pho, so I thought it’d be great to make Pad Thai or a Vietnamese noodle salad dish with lots of fish sauce, both are dishes I haven’t made before. Yesterday after spending 3 hours in the garden in a lovely 70-degrees Spring weather, I was really craving a nice bowl of refreshing noodle salad, with some grilled meat on top. I was yearning for that sizzle on the grill. Is it summer yet?

After quickly googled on the interweb, I came across this recipe, and was really satisfied with the result. It was just as light and refreshing as I wanted, but packed with flavor. Really worth all the prep time and work.

Some modifications and tips:

• I couldn’t find any lemongrass on the short notice, so I just squirted half a lime in the marinade.
• I really like the nuc cham sauce, I could just pour that over rice and eat a whole bowl of it. That’s why I added another 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce for the extra punch. I also couldn’t find any hot red chile, I simply used my beloved Sriracha sauce instead.
• This particular pack of rice sticks that I got required 6-8 minutes of cooking instead of the 4 minutes listed on the recipe. It’s sort of like cooking pasta, just check periodically for done-ness of your liking.
• I don’t own a mortar. I simply minced the garlic and the shallot really fine, by using the sugar’s coarse grain, I was able to mash them in a bowl with the back of a spoon.
• I added some sprinkles of scallion aka green onion, just to add a different hint of flavor.