Thai food for newbies: Poh Pia or Spring roll

Poh Pia or, as most of you know it, Spring Roll. To be honest, I cannot claim this dish as purely Thai food because it is largely influenced from China. So you will definitely find spring roll in many neighbour countries like in Malaysia, Vietnam and so on.

However, this crispy yummy roll is also famous as a Thai dish and it is easy and fun to eat. There are two types of spring roll or Poh Pia – the fresh spring roll (Poh Pia Sod) and the fried spring roll (Poh Pia Tod).

Thai people usually have this menu as an appetiser. This roll is made from a wrapper – usually an egg roll wrapper – wrapped around the fillings usually including minced pork, glass noodle, chopped cucumber, bean sprout, chopped carrot, sliced ear mushroom and sliced cabbage.

The topping list is endless, and it largely depends on your preference – it can be chicken, crab or shrimp, you name it!

Why should you try it?

• Easy and fun to eat
• Friendly taste as it is not spicy
• It is healthy with vegetable filling

How to eat it?

• The fried spring roll has to be dipped with its sweet chili sauce which also the heart of its flavour as well as the oil used for frying it, that must be new.
• The fresh spring roll also needs to be dipped with the dipping. However, this dipping is not sweet but more spicy and sour.

Where can you find one?

It is super easy to find a spring roll. Even you are not in Thailand, you can still find one in big supermarkets near your house as a frozen food. However, when you are here in Bangkok, you can find Poh Pia Tod and Poh Pia Sod in almost every restaurant. The fried spring roll is more common for restaurants that serve mostly to tourists.

Look for a more serious meal? Then check out Pad Thai!