About the recipes The recipes in this story are straight from my mother's kitchen. A lot has been lost in the transmission across the Pacific. My harried mother, like many mothers, works for a living. Time is always short, so Mother takes shortcuts when she can. For example, preparing rice tortillas for spring rolls is messy and tedious.
Many Asian supermarkets sell frozen lumpia wrappers, which are the Filipino equivalent of eggrolls.
The standard five-spice marinade is quick, but teriyaki sauce is quicker. The other inauthenticity is the need for a healthy diet. Cholesterol is mostly a richman's problem and in Third World Vietnam, grease is good. But in America, it costs nothing at all to die from overindulgence. Substitution is needed.