Vietnamese Noodle Salad

This is what we are eating today: Vietnamese noodle salad.
I admit that it is not very authentic but it is yummy.

Last Saturday, I had a church activity and a vietnamese sister prepared all the ingredients to make a vietnamese spring roll. She taught us how to put it together and roll everything up. However, we were in a small room and space was limited. So we all had to take turns to prepare our own roll. Some of us very hungry ones (including me) decided to skip the "rolling" part and just put everything on our plate and started eating... like a noodle salad. And so that is what's on my menu today.

Here's a quick look at my recipe.
Ingredients:

• Chicken leg
• Vietnamese noodle (Found in Tesco in the area where they sell "bihun". This one had vietnamese  words on the packaging, so I assume it is vietnamese noodle).
• Cabbage (shredded)
• Carrot (shredded)
• Taugeh or bean sprouts. I bought Ipoh taugeh.
• Prawns
• Mint leaves 

Sauce (I believe they call it nuoc cham. You can look online for the recipe but this is the one I used):

•  3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• Juice from 1 lime
• 1 lemon grass, chopped and pounded
• 3 tbsp water

How to:

• When I followed the sauce recipe above, it was not enough for me. So if you need more, just add more water, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Experiment a little and try to get that balance of sweet, salty and sour. 
• With the chicken, I rubbed some salt on and let it sit for a while. Before frying each piece, I first dipped it into some egg and then coated with corn flour. I usually end up burning my chicken when I fry them. So now, what I do is fry them for about 5 minutes and then pop them all into the oven to bake until cooked (about 45 minutes). Comes out perfect this way. Chop the chicken into bite size when it is done.
• Soak the Vietnamese noodle in water until soft. I quickly blanched them in hot water to cook it. Drain and set aside.
• Shred and cabbage and carrot like you're doing coleslaw. Set aside.
• Peel and wash the prawns. Cook in boiling hot water. Take out and set aside.
• When it is time to eat, just put everything onto your plate/bowl and add the sauce. 

That's it! My 2nd son really enjoyed it. He loved the sweet and sour taste. And it is a very healthy dish too.
Oh, feel free to add whatever other ingredients you like. This is a pretty versatile dish. For example, instead of chicken, you could do pork chops.

p.s. Another Vietnamese roll recipe - I did this in 2008.  Check out the ingredients I used then.