There is a dish called "Crispy Whole Fish with DIY Rice Paper Rolls" at Mamasan, one of my all time favorite restaurants. They give you a bunch of rice paper and a bowl of water, along with delicious crispy fish, a few accompaniments, a dipping sauce, and instructions to start rolling. It's always a little messy, but I love interactive food - it's fun!
So we decided to use their DIY concept, and expand on it a little. We made this amazing BBQ fish, we also barbecued some shrimp, and we prepped a whole range of fillings, including purple cabbage, pineapple, cilantro, lettuce, enoki mushrooms, red peppers, bean sprouts, and vermicelli rice noodles.
What's great about this concept is that you can really use whatever fillings tickle your fancy or, better yet, whatever you have in the fridge. Fillings like mint, Thai basil, shredded carrot, avocado, cucumber, spring onions, crushed peanuts, chicken, pork, and tofu would all be delicious too.
We used two dipping sauces - a store bought Thai sweet chili sauce, and then a super simple homemade sauce of 4 parts Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce) to 1 part fresh lime juice. Peanut sauce is another option that would be really yummy.
As expected, it was messy... but tasty, healthy, and fun. I like variety, so I played with a different combination of ingredients in each roll!
TIP - Next time we make our own summer rolls I'll use the bigger sized rice paper. Everyone jammed so much filling into each roll, they would have been easier to roll with bigger sheets!