over the past week or two, i made a bunch of vietnamese foods for the first time: the đồ chua i mentioned before, chả giò (spring rolls), and putting everything together for bún chả giò, the end goal of this adventure.
i didn't put anything fancy into the đồ chua, just daikon and carrots, and it was an amazing condiment to have around even for non-vietnamese foods; i put them on much more than just the hot dogs from before. i'm definitely going to have to keep making it regularly -- i honestly liked having them around as much as pickled onions, which is really saying something coming from me. they also made it into some gỏi cuốn i threw together from leftovers.
for the chả giò, somehow the hardest ingredient to come across for me were the wrappers themselves -- i ended up needing to visit three stores and grabbed the last pack they had. they were also a pain to make, but me and my roommate rolled a lot and froze most of them. i'm really happy with them, but it's definitely not a food i'm going to have the energy to make all the time. i hate having to touch ground meat.
on the other hand, once i had everything above ready, putting together a bowl of bún chả giò wasn't too intensive, and tasted even better than i'd imagined. the hardest part is just frying the chả giò. i had mine with lettuce, thai basil, (didn't have mint), nước chấm, chopped peanuts, and the đồ chua. it was really gratifying to get the final dish in front of me, since it'd been multiple days of planning and preparation to get to that point.