Fangcheng Rolled Rice Noodle Sheets 防城卷粉

Fangcheng Rolled Rice Noodle Sheets (防城卷粉) are thin sheets made from fresh rice batter rolled around a filling of pork and wood-ear mushroom, a traditional snack of Fangchenggang (防城港), Guangxi. They are also called juantongfen (卷筒粉), "tube-rolled noodles", because the filling is wrapped into a tube; the federation of returned overseas Chinese calls them overseas-Chinese rolled noodles (华侨卷粉), and Fangchenggang Daily calls them Vietnamese rolled noodles (越南卷粉).

How it is made

The wrapper is made from freshly ground rice batter; Fangchenggang Daily describes it as thin and translucent. It is wrapped tightly around a filling that the Fangchenggang culture and tourism bureau lists as pork, wood-ear mushroom (木耳) and carrot. The rolls are eaten with a dressing sauce.

Flavour and texture

The skin is fine, smooth and tender, and the bureau describes the bite as layered, the soft wrapper set against the juicy filling. Fangchenggang Daily likewise calls the rolls fresh-tasting and richly layered.

Where it comes from

According to the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, the dish is a Fangchenggang adaptation of Vietnamese rolled rice sheets. In the late 1970s many ethnic Chinese from Vietnam returned to Fangcheng (防城), and some began selling this snack from northern Vietnam to make a living. Rolled-noodle shops then spread through the streets of Fangcheng, and the federation now counts the dish among the most representative foods of this border and coastal city. Fangchenggang Daily likewise calls it a signature snack of Fangchenggang whose technique came from returned overseas Chinese from Vietnam.