EAT IN ASIA / Destinations / Thailand
Fresh tuna spring rolls with a lovely sweet and spicy sauce
So, so good! These wonderful fresh spring rolls with an authentic semi spicy yellow seafood dipping sauce will make you crazy! I am not exaggerating. That is marvelous!
What is so unique about Thai fresh tuna spring rolls served with the yellow sauce?
The whole composition is ideal. Really, it does not need to be tuned in any way. It is neither too spicy, nor too sweet. Neither it is too salty nor too heavy. It is perfect!
The sauce – Thai style homemade yellow seafood sauce
That is almost the most important thing in this dish. Well, it sounds strange, but yes, it is true.
This unique Thai seafood sauce is wonderful. It has all notes and flavors that you might think about. It is a little bit salty, and it is a little bit sour. There is some spiciness in it and finally some sweetness. However, although it is sweet it is not sweet in the sugary meaning. If I did not know prices of ingredients and the general recipe, I would say, that this sweetness comes from honey. Actually, no it is not honey that is in it. However, still the final taste is very very similar to the one you get from honey.
The sauce varies from one home to another, and from one restaurant to another. It is also hard to find it in the store, Thai people love it and prepare it at home. Even they go abroad, they still do that. That is one of the most liked sauces and is mainly served with different seafood dishes. It can be served with sushi rolls, spring rolls, prawn dishes or with crabs. Seafood and sushi is loved in Asia. Especially in Taiwan and Japan these sushi lunch boxes are extremely popular. Check our post on How does a Japanese Sushi look like? to get some more information about it.
This Thai sauce is fresh, light and has unique Asian flavors. You can easily distinguish in it lime juice, garlic, ginger, peanuts, chili, parsley and a slight note of salt and fish from the fish or from an oyster sauce.
As I said before. Although the general recipe has some key ingredients like lime or lemon, chili, garlic and fish sauce, their proportions and other ingredients are different in each household.
Fresh spring rolls
The first thing is that they are extremely fresh, and they are sold or served just after being prepared. No long storing, no waiting, nothing like that. The fresher they are, the better they are too. Even if you try to keep them in the fridge and wait till the evening, they would not be the same. What is more, they will definitively lose a lot of their taste. Of course, they will not be rotten, but will not be as good as just after the preparation. The rice paper will become very dry, a little bit hard, and the stuffing will be dried too. Also, all veggies will not have their crunchiness and the fish will not have its natural softness.
But, if you eat it immediately, you will be able to enjoy it fully.
Spring rolls are small, rather like half of a standard spring roll. However, it does not mean that they modestly stuffed. Nothing like that. I would rather say that it is on the contrary. There is plenty of veggies in them too.
Apart from that, each part of the roll has a nice tuna stripe, a rich bunch of a fresh and crunchy green lettuce and of course some finely julienned carrots and very thin rice noodles. These noodles are in a minority what is unusual.
Proportions are ideal. Nothing is over dominating, and nothing kills other aromas. With every bite you can taste all textures and all flavors. When you dip rolls in the yellow lemon sauce, you will even strengthen all needed tastes. That is because fish pairs greatly with lime juice and vegetables easily get some spiciness from the chili and garlic note. The extra fish taste mixed with some sweetness and saltiness additionally aromatizes the bland flavor of the rice paper.
Fresh tuna spring rolls with Thai seafood dipping sauce
That is what you must try. And what is important, do it here, in Thailand. Why? Because only here you will have the possibility of trying something unique, homemade and something that is prepared from really fresh ingredients and from these that might be available only here in Thailand.
Just do not miss it!
