I can’t answer that directly, but Vietnamese restaurants do serve many dishes with lettuce, mint, cilantro, and other foliage with the intention that you tear it up and put it in a little bowl with the entree and fish sauce.
Rotting flesh? Mangos? Oh, well, to each his own.
You know what? I’m not sure about the spring roll thing either. Restaurants in Southern California definitely serve cha gio (similar to egg rolls) with lettuce, mint, and coriander (though we call it cilantro). Spring rolls usually come prewrapped in soft rice paper. Inside they have rice noodles, shrimp, and chives, and are dipped into peanut sauce. In Viet Nam, I can’t eat fresh vegetables so I haven’t really paid attention, but I think they do it the same there. I know nem nuong is always served with a lot of leafy vegetables and fish sauce for dipping.
I was in Viet Nam in February too. I wonder if I saw you there? Did you spend any time in Nha Trang? I’ll be back for three weeks in November. Woo hoo!
Peppermint?? It sure doesn’t taste like peppermint! You know what I’m talking about right? Bac Ha has the same general shape (a stalk) as celery but tastes very different. It’s very porous/spongy and soaks up the soup broth.
That’s odd that you guys on the west coast say cha gio = egg rolls. I have always though of egg rolls as strictly chinese animals full of cabbage. We call cha gio “spring rolls” and we call goi cuon “summer rolls” (they’re cold, so you eat them in the summer- get it?). Also, cha gio are served with an abundance of lettuce & about a half-bushel (I exaggerate only slightly) of basil, not cilantro. Eat a basil leaf or two with each bite of cha gio- yum!
In all of the restaurants I have been to I have never seen any variance to the above terminology.
OK, I was wrong. My dictionary does in fact define bac ha as peppermint, but after perusing a few websites I find that peppermint is Mentha piperita while bac ha is Mentha arvensis, also known as common mint, wild mint, field mint, or corn mint. According to one website, its leaves do have a strong peppermint flavor. As you pointed out though, its stalk is the ingredient in canh chua, not its leaves.
I like your definition of spring rolls and summer rolls better, but it seems like here it’s more common to call “cha gio” egg rolls and “bi cuon” or “goi cuon” spring rolls. I’m not sure why that is.