Teczcape-An Escape to Food

Instead of making Korean Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps or Tuna Chickpea Lettuce Endive Wraps, consider these light, refreshing vegetarian alternatives such as Peas and Corn Lettuce Wraps or Tofu Salad-Veggie Rolls. 

I have not made rice paper rolls for the longest time ever since these Summer Rice Paper Rolls. Just like salads, these low-carb gluten-free rolls is quite the perfect summer food. Minimal cooking, fuss-free preparation to save you from stove-top cooking; yet refreshing and satisfying to enjoy on warm summer days. 


These rolls are quick and easy to put together with this tip/trick: Buy your favorite store-bought salad-box vegetables (Note: combination with leafy greens + finely julienned carrots, beets, radishes, bell peppers preferred) so that you do not have to prep (rinsing/drying/slicing) a variety of vegetables from scratch. Fill rice paper wrapper with rainbow veggies straight from the salad-box, add thinly sliced firm tofu (Note: needs to be firm or super-firm tofu to ensure minimum moisture that is preferred for wrapping) and this 15-minute healthy meal is ready before you even know it.

If you work (or cook) in the kitchen very often, you will find that you get new ideas for your next dish just when you are preparing the current dish. Do you?


These rice rolls were "conceptualized" when I made tofu bibimbap. I was thinking - most of these ingredients can actually fit into a rice wrapper and be made into a rice roll. Since there were some leftover bibimbap ingredients namely pan-fried tofu, red bell pepper, radish, baby spinach - why not have another creation for appetizers? Then came these Tofu-Pepper-Radish Rice Paper Rolls.

And no, I did not use gochujang as the sauce-dipper for these rolls lest it became a deconstructed bibimbap with "rice" wrapping the ingredients. You can jolly well make that happen if you wanted to. However, all I wanted was refreshing rice rolls with sweet-tangy-spicy sauce dip, so I made Honey-Vinegar-Sambal Sauce Dip to go with the rice rolls.

Once in a while, I buy pre-made rice-rolls from 99 Ranch Asian supermarket and use them as "noodles" for stir-frying turning it to savory breakfast, or topping the steamed rice-rolls with bolognese sauce transforming it to "pasta".


The Cantonese rice-rolls (Cheong Fun, in Cantonese) served in dim-sum restaurants and eateries might be mainstream with shrimp-filled rice-rolls, BBQ-pork rice-rolls and dough-fritters rice-rolls widely seen and served.

However, I sometimes miss the Singapore hawker version: steamed plain rice-rolls drizzled with a sweet-savory-spicy sauce, then sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.


Following my taste experience with Korean red pepper paste - gochujang, using it to make Healthy Bibimbap, Steamed Eggplant, and Steamed Okra, I managed to replicate the hawker sweet-savory-spicy combo. into one very delicious homemade sauce. It was quite successful in terms of replicating the taste of hawker-stall Chee Cheong Fun.

Mornings are the most energizing and motivating. You wake up feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep, gearing to complete what is already planned for the rest of the day.

However, the motivation to make this breakfast dish did not come about after waking up from bed. It was "conceptualized" the night before.

Do you plan ahead of what to make/cook for breakfast?


For us, the no-brainer, no-plan, hassle-free breakfast is cereals/granola + milk or oatmeal. Occasionally, add a peanut butter toast and even better, plus a hard-boiled egg, then everything ends well with coffee.

Once in a while, one has to plan when change is intended.

In the US, we do not have the luxury of hawker-style breakfast such as fishball noodles, fried carrot cake and fried bee hoon. So to break the routine of cereals/granola and/or peanut butter toast breakfast, get cooking!

Who can resist paper-thin fresh rice rolls? Shrimp-filled or Char-Siew (BBQ pork), sometimes even filled with fried dough sticks （炸两）! Steamed rice rolls can be one of the most popular dim-sum item when you visit a Chinese dim-sum restaurant. Even the plainest fresh steamed rice rolls can be so delicious, when simply drizzled with a soy-based sauce.


How about those pre-packaged rice rolls that are available in the Asian supermarket? I will settle for that if (1) I do not make my own rice rolls and (2) do not have the luxury to be near any dim-sum restaurant/eatery that opens as early as 7am for breakfast.

This is my second experiment to turn pre-packaged rice rolls to breakfast.


Personally I do not like to plainly steam those pre-packaged rice rolls for the simple reason that these pre-packaged rice rolls were not made fresh on the spot in the first place. Either I fry it or...

This Stir-Fry Rice Rolls 煎炒肠粉 is a nice change from our typical weekend breakfast oats.

What is your breakfast routine? Do you ever break the routine and have something different? What is it then?


The store-bought fresh rice rolls were purchased from the Asian grocery store - 99 Ranch. Before stir-frying them, these rolls were sliced to bite-size, then stir-fried with some green onions and eggs. Finally garnished with toasted sesame seeds and served with squirts of chili sauce and cucumber garnish, the taste is surprisingly good!

Probably we have been missing out on savory breakfasts for a while. And the HappyCall Pan comes to the morning breakfast rescue.


Stir-Fry Rice Rolls with Egg and Toasted Sesame Seeds 煎炒肠粉
Ingredients: 2-3 long fresh cooked rice rolls sliced to bite-size, 1 organic egg whisked, 2 green onions finely chopped, separate the white and green portions, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds, 1 mini organic cucumber sliced to fine shreds

Directions: Add the white portions of onions to the pan, and sweat for about 3 minutes. Add the rice rolls pieces and fry at medium heat till warm. Gently and slowly add the whisked egg, then soy sauce and gently break up the eggs in the pan amongst the rice roll bites. Fry for about 5 minutes, then cover the pan to gently cook the mixture for about 3-5 minutes. Open the pan, sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and then green parts of the onions then serve warm, topped with thin shreds of cucumber.



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Tag: stir fry rice rolls, rice rolls