The pink of lobster shone through the translucent wrapper of cool Vietnamese summer rolls.

The idea is to take the rice paper, dip it into the water until it softens, then roll your own summer roll.

It is also the most typical dipping sauce for summer rolls (gỏi cuốn).

Add minuscule orders of summer rolls, and picture yourself on a boat on a river.

In the West, these rolls are called by several different English names, including "salad roll," and "summer roll."

The summer roll, though, had a dry rice paper wrapper and an ice-cold filling.

And the summer rolls, a variation on a Vietnamese theme, were light, pretty and bland.

Or: Deregulated summer rolls on: Our meadow's making hay as if the national gross product must be grass.

But more interesting offerings were at hand, like cool Vietnamese summer rolls filled with avocado, shrimp, vermicelli and mango.

For the summer rolls, lay the rice paper sheet on a chopping board.