A crispy, savory pancake for lunch
Thais call Vietnamese Crepes “Ka-Nom-Beung-Yuan” ขนมเบื้องญวน (Vietnamese Crispy Starch*). It’s a street food normally prepared from scratch and served hot throughout Thailand, especially in Isaan where contact with Vietnamese is more pronounced. As the name implies, the origin of these paper-thin pancakes with savory tastes of shrimp and pork belly is Vietnam. “Yuan” is an informal, spoken word for Vietnam or Vietnamese in Thai. Ka-Nom-Beung-Yuan in Thailand is quite different from the traditional Vietnamese version due to unavailability or complexity of certain ingredients. The same way that pizza in Italy is not the same thing as what you eat in the States called Peet-sa. This YouTube video (with which I’m not associated) shows the food stall in Khon-Khaen Province preparing commonly simplified Vietnamese crepes with Thai ingredients. Here eggs are added; more oil is used (excessively). Unfortunately, the shop is also mistakenly called Ka-Nom-Beung-Thai ขนมเบื้องไทย despite its flagship product is indeed Vietnamese crepes. At least three posters responding to the video wrote in Thai that the shop’s name is incorrect; the food they sold is Vietnamese, not Thai. Ka-Nom-Beung-Thai is something else altogether from India and is a sweet, not a savory food.
Luckily for all of us, you can order this dish at Vietnamese restaurants in the United States. Just look at the menu for the word Bahn Xeo, or if you really pay attention and see the French accent marks Bánh Xèo. Each crepe is eaten with a lot of fresh vegetables. And that’s healthy.
Many cultures pair food to maximize its nutritional values even before learning about food science and scientific names. Here, a typical Vietnamese dish that abundance of fresh vegetables is paired with starch and meat cooked in oil.
I grew up near the Isaan borders and really enjoyed all of my food before knowing that I was well into my world culinary journey. I even had Vietnamese crepes in a former French colony in Africa. If you read my post on making French crepes, you’ll find out that the crepe cooking process is all time consuming. I won’t be surprised if a food historian researches and finds that the French colonization of Asian left both fine French baguettes and Vietnamese crepes in Vietnam, Laos (a delicious, freshly baked French baguette saved the day during my trip to Vientiane in 2010) and Cambodia (where a similar version of Cambodian crepes exists). Preparing Vietnamese crepes takes time, too. I don’t make them often — maybe every other month or so. It’s better for colder months. The hint of coconut and turmeric, patience and heat-infused crispiness, freshness of combined lettuce leaves, mint, cilantro and thinly julienned carrot, and the dipping sauce of blended sweet, tangy and hot tastes offer not only a balanced meal but also a delightful journey of world cuisine.
A salad spinner is perfect for rinsing and draining washed bean sprout.
Now back to how we can make this dish. The package has instructions in English, but, like many product manuals, it doesn’t tell us everything. A step is missing here; another step is not written there. I usually buy my Bahn Xeo mix from Asian grocery stores.
Ingredients:
This is the brand that I use.
Bahn Xeo mix 1 cup
Coconut milk, 2/3 can –use only top creamy part out of the can(unless you know how to prepare fresh coconut milk from frozen grated coconut meat, canned or powered coconut milk is a good substitute)
Shrimp, deveined and cleaned 1/8 pound
Pork, sliced 1/8 pound
Green onion, chopped 1-2
Bean sprout, rinsed and drained ½ pound
Salad:
Rinse and drain the following vegetables
Lettuce, cilantro, mint leaves, bean sprout and carrot (julienned)
Dipping sauce:
Mix together the following:
Chili pepper 5-7, finely chopped
Vinegar 1/8 cup
Sugar 1/8 cup
Fish sauce 1/8 cup
I happen to have a Thai charcoal grill and a wok with the handle similar to the video with the wrong name above. It works better to cook Vietnamese crepes on such charcoal stove to rotate the wok more efficiently. In my own video, I cooked my crepes on an electric stove which didn’t provide even heating. It worked, nonetheless.
My charcoal stove from Thailand. The whole thing is made out of clay.
How to:
1) Mix packaged flour, coconut milk and chopped green onion together and set aside for at least 10 minutes.
Batter with chopped green onions
2) Pre-heat a frying pan (or wok) over medium-to-high heat.
You may add crushed garlic to make this dish more savory.
3) Meantime, sauté shrimp and pork in another frying pan. Season it well. Remove the pan from heat.
4) Add cooking oil to the pre-heated frying from step 2.
5) Pour the batter on the greased, pre-heated frying pan.
Patience, patience, patience. High heat, heat, heat.
6) Swirl the batter around. Rotate all sides to thoroughly cook the batter.
7) Add bean sprout and the cooked meats to the now-almost crispy crepe.
8) Fold the crepe in half. Like the French crepes, the high heat will make the crepe easier to be lifted off the pan by hand. CAUTION: It’s super hot!
9) Move the crepe to a serving plate. Serve the crepe immediately with the salad and the dipping sauce.
(Similarly, Ka-Nom-Jeen ขนมจีน means Chinese starch in Thai. Literally, Ka-Nom means a sweet in the Thai language. But these Ka-nom’s are not at all sweet tasting but prepared starch to be used further in cooking.)
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