Cheung Fun vs Banh Cuon: Frozen Dim Sum Disguised as Viet Food

+ frozen rice roll review + a very handy hot plate grabber + a 20% discount on cookbooks

For millennia, China has tried to exert its influence over Vietnam, its southern neighbor. To a certain extent, Vietnam’s culture borrows from that of Southern China. Rarely does China take a cue from Vietnam, especially when it comes to food products. But maybe that’s changing? A few weeks ago at 99 Ranch in San Jose, I spotted this frozen product that stopped me in my tracks.

They looked like cheung fun/fan — the ubiquitous steamed rice rolls served on most dim sum menus. But, they were being marketed in English as “Vietnamese Bánh Cuốn”. Was that truth in labeling? The ingredient list, which included MSG, didn’t mention wood ear or shiitake mushroom and other ingredients that are typically employed in the Vietnamese steamed rice rolls. I was curious so I bought a package. There was an entire case of them so they must be popular.

Cheung Fun vs Bánh Cuốn: What are the similarities and differences?

Cantonese cheung fun/fan rice noodle rolls and bánh cuốn are both made from steamed sheets of rice batter (imagine a cooked sheet of rice pasta). The Chinese one is thicker than the Vietnamese version. Both can be served filled or unfilled. Cheung fun may encase sliced beef, whole shrimp, or vegetables. Lightly sweetened soy sauce typically gets poured over the Chinese rolls, which are served warm.

Literally meaning “rolled cake,” bánh cuốn is made with thinner, more delicate rice sheets than cheung fun. The Viet rolls contain a pre-cooked filling of ground pork and mushroom (or a vegetarian, mushroomy mixture that mimics its meaty kin). The rice sheet is typically rolled around the filling with the ends closed like a blintz. Bánh cuốn are served warm or at room temperature, and eaten with nuoc cham, fried shallot, herbs, cucumber and/or blanched bean sprouts. To illustrate, this is the bánh cuốn photo in Ever-Green Vietnamese (we used it for the book cover shot too!). It’s not what you get at dim sum.

Photo by Aubrie Pick / styling by Karen Shinto / prop styling Glenn Jenkins

In summary, the frozen rolls were not truly bánh cuốn but boy, were they handy for a light dim sum lunch. I followed the directions to steam them up, 5 per plate, in my Chinese steamer. No, I didn’t have to thaw them. After I found plates that could fit into the steamer tray, I snuggled the frozen cheung fun on the plates. They steamed for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, I stirred together an impromptu sauce of 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 1/2 tablespoons agave syrup. Once the rolls were soft and hot, I removed them from the steamer, and set each plate on a larger plate as a charger of sorts (to safely bring the rolls to the table). I poured the sauce over the rolls and we dug in. On the side was the cucumber, kale and spicy cashew salad from Ever-Green Vietnamese.

How did the cheung fun taste? They were chewier than ones at dim sum (there’s likely extra starch in the batter to make the rolls freezable). The seafood was ok, not stupendous. But, the rolls were more than fine for a fast lunch. Seeing as how the rolls were pretending to be Vietnamese bánh cuốn, I tore up some fresh herbs and put them atop the rolls. The herbs added a pop of fresh flavor, in my biased Vietnamese opinion! ;-)

Asian Plate Grabber

At this point you might be thinking: How did I get the very hot plate out of the steamer? I used a hot plate gripper, purchased from Amazon. It’s great for getting into tight spots to retrieve hot plates, bowls, and toaster oven racks. I was using a clamp-like gripper but Asian plate tongs will work too. If you’re new to such tools, get one of each plus a claw like gripper in this set.

Cookbook Discount at Kitchen Arts and Letters

Last year, I co-founded a podcast called Everything Cookbooks, which is geared for cookbook nerds and makers, inside and outside of the industry. A recent episode featured one of my favorite sources for books on food and drink — Kitchen Arts and Letters (KAL), located in New York City. Nearly 40 years old, KAL is the oldest shop of its kind in America. Podcast co-hosts Molly Stevens and Kate Leahy interviewed KAL’s Matt Sartwell, who has been very kind in supporting my work over the years. Disclosure: Matt mentions my name in the episode as we’ve collaborated on events.

Matt is generously offering podcast listeners a one-time 20 percent discount code. The deal is good until July 31, 2023. To get the code, listen to the episode (it’s exceptionally good!). Then, head over to the KAL website to browse and save. If you don’t have a copy of Ever-Green Vietnamese, there’s a limited number of signed copies left.