unconstructed Vietnamese prawn rolls

When we were at the Soup Dragon on Pub Street in Siem Reap, we ordered beef in betel leaves (for the uninitiated, think dolmades, filled with minced beef and char-grilled) and it came with the usual accoutrements of herbage and greenery, but this time there was also a stack of rice wrappers, a bowl of water and some vermicelli noodles. Make your own rolls. What a genius idea. Who can be bothered faffing about making them up for guests who will never appreciate the stress you endured in their creation, when you could just get them to make them themselves?

"The sum total of all human misery that is Pak-n-Save", as an acquaintance so aptly put it, has a fish counter in Gisborne that keeps drawing me back. And their latest offering, $13.99-a-kilo raw prawns, presented the perfect opportunity to reach into the dark recesses of my pantry and liberate the jar of Hoisin, the bundle of vermicelli and the packet of rice wrappers that had been lurking there since I sent Matt forth to one of Auckland's wonderful Asian supermarkets all those months ago.

$6 of prawns, some noodles and some herbage later - along with some dipping sauce - and Matt was shaking his head as his caveman brain attempted to comprehend that he was actually full, and sated, by a meal so lacking in MEAT.

~unconstructed Vietnamese rolls~
stack of rice wrappers
bowl of water
platter of freshly washed, crunchy romaine (or whatever) lettuce, basil leaves, mint leaves, coriander, julienned cucumber
bowl of Hoisin
bowl of prawns, cooked whole in a big pot of salted boiling water - they'll take just a few minutes and will considerately float to the surface to let you know they're done - then rinsed in cold water, beheaded and peeled
bowl of vermicelli noodles (put in bowl and cover with boiling water for 3-5 minutes, drain and rinse in cold water)
bowl of dipping sauce (mix 2T palm sugar (or regular old sugar), 3T fish sauce, 4T lime juice, 1 clove crushed garlic, 1 finely chopped Thai chilli)

Assemble @ table @ leisure.