My friend Loan returned to her home province of Thanh Hoa to visit her family over Tet, as many Vietnamese do. She returned to Hanoi yesterday and dropped in to say hello, bringing with her these gorgeous banana-leaf parcels. "Nem" is the name for what we would call spring rolls. But these Thanh Hoa "Nem" are different. They are little tubes of peppery cured sausage meat. This sort of cured meat is very popular in "bia hoi" outlets, but apparently Thanh Hoa has its own special recipe!
