Imperial rolls at Dragon Rouge are a new twist on a golden oldie.
Savory fillings rolled up in a flat wrapper and fried: It’s a universal food formulation that has, over the millennia, manifested as Mexican chimichangas, Indian roti, Filipino lumpia, Eastern European blintzes, Chinese eggrolls, and so much more — including Vietnamese imperial rolls.
Known as cha gio in the southern part of Vietnam and nem ran in northern parts, these crispy, chewy, cigar-shaped, neatly wrapped golden parcels are traditionally stuffed with a melange of julienned jicama, julienned carrots, wood-ear fungus, soaked bean-thread noodles, and a blend of pork, shrimp, and crab — all mixed and bound with raw egg. Old school cha gio are made with rice-flour wrappers, but more and more modern-day cooks are making them with wheat flour wrappers, claiming that these are more durable and brown more beautifully.
Alameda’s Dragon Rouge restaurant serves several types of wheat flour-wrapped, soybean-oil-fried cha gio — pronounced “jah joe” — with a variety of creative stuffings, including prawns, curried potatoes, and pork with taro root.
“The great thing about imperial rolls are that they’re very versatile,” said Dragon Rouge co-owner Jimmy Luu.
“Most people have them as appetizers,” but “cha gio can also be served alongside rice vermicelli noodles, shredded lettuce, and pickled daikon and carrots to make a full meal.
“In my mother’s hometown of Phan Thiet, my family would put imperial rolls inside fresh spring rolls.”
Add in sliced hard-boiled eggs, vermicelli noodles, mint, and lettuce, and you’ve got a kaleidoscopically colorful, multi-textured roll-within-a-roll. At family-run waterfront Dragon Rouge, whose other founders include Jimmy’s brother Scott Luu and their cousin Dan Nguyen, it’s called Mom’s Phantastic Roll, and it’s served with peanut dipping sauce.
The classic method of eating cha gio starts with placing a crispy imperial roll in the middle of a fresh Romaine lettuce leaf along with pickled carrots and/or daikon, vermicelli noodles, and fresh mint.
“After rolling the lettuce up around the roll with all the fixings, dip it into the sweet fish sauce known as nuoc mam,” said Luu, an Alameda High School graduate, “and enjoy.”
Dragon Rouge Restaurant, 2337 Blanding Ave., Alameda, 510-521-1800, DragonRougeRestaurant.com