UYE: Spring Rolls Around

When it comes to events involving Unilocal,I’m always confident that whether it is an official Unilocal event or unofficial one, a good time will be had by all. So when Minh N. graciously arranged this UYE in my neighborhood, I looked forward to attending. Our intimate gathering of Unilocalers brought us to this obviously popular Vietnamese Restaurant with a name I can’t even try to pronounce! Quan Nem Ninh Hoa is located on what I call Stockton Blvd’s restaurant row. There are so many of these eateries along this street that it is often hard to decide which one to go to. Fortunately, Minh made the decision for us! And it turned out to be a good choice!
As we arrived, we were greeted by friendly and smiling Unilocalers that took over a long table in the center of the dining room reserved just for us! Some people I knew, but I also got to meet some new faces too! Everyone present was warm and cordial. Just how Sacramento UYE’s always expectedly turn out!
Besides our private gathering, the dining area was already filled with customers. A good sign that this was the place to be! As far as I know, there aren’t that many Vietnamese restaurants around that allow patrons to make their own spring rolls. You place an order for the ingredients you prefer and then ask for the «roll your own» kit. This is when our star Unilocaler Minh put on a demonstration on how to «have it your way» Vietnamese style. A large plate of assorted greens is placed on the table to accompany your chosen meal along with a flavorful dipping sauce. The unique feature they offer here is that you also get rice paper as part of the preparation for creating your spring roll. An upright, round, flat, clear plastic container, filled with water, is placed on the table where you then insert a sheet of rice paper into it for a ~10 seconds. This softens it enough for you to then place it on your plate, add your ingredients, and proceed to roll it up like a burrito, then wha-​la! You have a spring roll designed to your specifications!
Everyone had an enjoyable time eating and socializing. The menu offers a lot of fan favorites. Another great Unilocal combo that includes good food and good friends! Thanks Minh for a memorable and entertaining UYE!

Another fun UYE with more mew friends. Thank you Minh N for pulling this together.
Quan Nem Ninh Hoa can be called a hole in the wall just for the size of the place. Very tight seating but still very cozy. It is a place that if it wasn’t for this event I would have never thought about stopping in.
The idea of this event was a «build your own» Spring roll. Although, they had a menu that had lots of different dishes and the vegans and veg-​heads had some great options as well.
The service was pretty good. Our orders were taken quickly by a nice young lady who knew the menu well. Just a slight language barrier but not bad at all. There was a variety of dished that were ordered. Being it was a «build your own» spring roll that was the direction I went. I ordered the #1 pork spring roll. The orders started coming out and everyone around me was served quickly. Although I did have to wait as I think I might have been lost in the shuffle. Finally my meal came to me. But I had no plate or rice wraps. It did take some time to get the runners attention to advise him of my missing items. He did accommodate me quickly but he did carry out my rice wraps in his bare hand! Hmmmm, maybe on a napkin or plate next time?
After a lesson from Minh on how to roll I got started rolling. Easy and simple to do. In addition to the dipping sauce that comes with the dish Minh mixed a great sauce for dipping that was sweet salty and spicy. Very good Minh! The quality of my dish was very good. To my surprise the pork was ground pork and molded to the skewers and then grilled. Even though I was caught off guard by this expecting strips of pork It was very good and had great flavor and char. Even the pickled pork was very good! Pickled pork? Who knew? It was actually refreshing for such an item.
All in all it was a very nice experience at something I would have never tried. I will go back with my +1 (wife) one day soon
This group of people I was with tonight was again a great fun group. I am glad to get to know everyone and look forward to more events like this!
Cash only no CC!

Awesome Culinary Instruction In Vietnamese Spring Rolls Making
SITREP
A Big Thanks to Minh N. for bringing us Unilocalers together for his «UYE: Spring Rolls Around», a very catchy double-​entendre.
What was dynamic about this UYE is that it was totally interactive in that made our spring rolls.
THE SET-​UP
Our host — Quan Nem Ninh Hoa — is a bright & airy restaurant with a lot of different tables so it was easy to accommodate our group of about 14 Unilocalers.
LE MENU
It was nice to share in the rolling-​process. The various ingredients for this endeavor were extremely fresh (in the case of the leafy greens, the cut veggies) or deliciously cooked (in the case of the foil-​wrapped and skewered meats or roasted Tofu). The dishes the food items were very colorful and lively:
There is a bowl of water. There is a platter of dried circular rice paper with exotic designs on it. There are several tubular-​shaped, lenthy deep-​fried wontons. There was a plate with skewered meat. And then there was a large boat-​shaped basin that contained a lot of different fresh, and delicious looking veggies.
From here engaged in the rolling process:
* Take one of the rice paper discs and circle it through the water bowl to moisten it up — but not for took long, otherwise it would become too sticky — and then place the moist rice paper disc on the plate.
* On one side of the rice paper, but a bit away from the edge, add some different veggies, like the shredded carrot and cucumber.
* Then strip lengths of lettuce and other greens and place them on the same side.
* Grab one half section, lengthwise, of the tofu place it on the lettuce.
* What was unusual, but fun, was taking one of the deep-​fried rolled up wontons and crumbling it up on the rest of the items.
* Then with some delicate precision, take the side of the rice paper that had all the items neatly place in some orderly-​fashion, and proceed to roll up into a big spring roll! Wa-​la!
* And its ready to eat with the spicy red dipping sauce prepared in a small bowl and that came out with all the other items. And when eating that roll, its Rinse (a new rice paper) & Repeat!
As an added bonus, I got to enjoy some Cha Ca Cuon (fried fish cake patty roll)
As well as some Bun Chao Tom (Deep fried shrimp wrapped around sugarcane over vermicelli)
CUSTOMER SERVICE
For the most part, everything was top notch. But I have to admit that The Wizard (aka Joe K.) and I had a moment with one of the servers when the server tried to blame his own mixing up of orders on us:
–he got mine wrong (I ordered shrimp in my Bun Chao Tom, not pork),
–then he served my wrong order to Joe, who naturally assumed it was his order, and proceeded to eat my wrong order,
–then the server realized he mixed us up, tried to snatch it away from Joe who was already eating it
–but there was no way in hell I was going to accept it since (1) it was an incorrect order; and (2) Joe had already been eating it
–and yet this young male server took NO responsibility for the mix-​up and felt the best way to resolve this situation was to be belligerent & confrontational to both Joe & I
–so this could have become a difficult & ugly situation.
Luckily the manager saw what was happening, resolved the situation, dressed-​down his server with the attitude, and told me that my new order would be coming out for me soon.
THE LOWDOWN OF OUR CULINARY ENJOYMENT!
All of us Unilocalers had a great time with this interactive form of meal preparation & dining enjoyment, and it was a treat to see ourselves acquire some skill in spring roll preparation and our dinner progressed and our hats off to Quan Nem Ninh Hoa for providing an excellent dining experience.

This is my first UYE and I must say it was quite nice courtesy of Minh. The restaurant is pretty small but fits a lot of people for the space. The service was good being it was several of us ordering food. I ordered the #16 it was pretty decent I’m not use to rice noodles so it was a little different for me. It was great to be in the presents of other Unilocalers and it was nice to meet new Unilocalers as well. My wife and I had a nice time minus the hair I’m her food «Party Foul» but hey nobody’s perfect however, I must deduct 1 star for that incident. It was nice chatting with everyone and must do a event like this again! Thanks, Minh for putting together a nice event. I love supporting my fellow Unilocalers!

What an enjoyable evening this was. As it was filled with good food, great conversations, and several members of our amazing sacramento Unilocal community… What more could I ask? The food was plentiful, the entrees are generous, and it didn’t «dent» my pocket book… ;-). The idea of eating fresh rolled, or «roll your own» spring rolls in the spring is clever indeed. And I must thank Minh for setting this up… you’re awesome!
Several of us ordered the fresh rolled spring rolls, and others ordered the #1 roll your own. I became immediately engaged as I observed Minh’s interactive explanation on how to assemble a roll-​your-​own spring roll. The rice paper is served upright in a caddy with an enclosed slot on one side filled with warm water to dunk the rice paper tortilla shaped disc to moisten. Minh quickly laid the rice «wrap «on the plate and demonstrated how to fill it with an assortment of spring veggies, meats, and sauces. Next he quickly rolled it all up… and voila. a perfectly rolled fresh spring roll a la Minh.
Within no time those who ordered the #1 plate «roll your own» where creating interesting combinations of fresh fillings to satisfy their own unique taste. I was impressed at how quickly Alex and Jefferson were creating their unique spring rolls.
Jessica, Leonardo, and I, ordered fresh rolled spring rolls from the menu. Leo had the fish cake and tofu spring rolls, and Jessica also had the tofu spring rolls. I had the crispy shrimp spring roll and we all shared a delicious order of Banh Bao.
Everything was so fresh and delicious I most definitely will return to try their phở.
Shout outs:
It was so nice to see Jannelle & Amy, Katie & her man [;-), Michelangelo, Joe K & Ida, Dominique, & Minh, Leo, Alex, Jefferson, Jess, And Chris. I want to thank you all for giving me a happy ending to a very long work week, and I look forward to more events like this in the future.