Crispy Vietnamese crepe made with turmeric-tinted rice flour batter, stuffed with shrimp, pork, and bean sprouts.
Southern and central Vietnamese, with two regional schools: the larger, thinner Mekong-style banh xeo (around Can Tho and Saigon) and the smaller, thicker central-coast version from around Da Nang. The name itself is onomatopoeic — "xeo" is the hiss of batter hitting the hot pan. The technique is older than the name records, but the modern format stabilized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Sizzling pancake — the name imitates batter hitting the pan. Rice flour, coconut milk, turmeric, stuffed with shrimp, pork, bean sprouts. Eat it right: tear, wrap in mustard leaf, dip in nuoc cham.
A wide yellow crepe so crisp it cracks audibly when you fold it — turmeric in the rice batter gives the color, coconut milk in the batter gives the brittleness. Folded around shrimp, pork belly, and bean sprouts that stay barely cooked. You tear off a piece, wrap it in lettuce and herbs, and dunk in nuoc cham. Soggy edges mean the pan wasn't hot enough or the cook used too much batter.
Coconut milk in the batter is the structural choice. Coconut fat sets crisp at the temperatures rice flour browns at, where dairy fat would scorch first; that's why a banh xeo can shatter while a wheat-and-butter crepe cannot. Skipping coconut milk gives a rubbery yellow disc. Watering down the batter beyond the standard one-to-one with rice flour collapses the crisp inside ten minutes of plating.
Variations
Southern banh xeo (large, coconut-rich, served with mustard greens and herbs); central banh khoai (smaller, crispier, Hue version); banh xeo mien Tay (Mekong delta, even larger); seafood-only banh xeo hai san along the coast.
On the Palate
Where Banh Xeo sits in the Vietnamese flavor cloud
Get the batter crisp, not rubbery: keep the coconut milk in and hold the batter to a roughly one-to-one thinness with the rice flour, because coconut fat is what lets the crepe shatter instead of turning into a soft yellow disc.
Ingredients
How it's made
5 steps · 17 min
- 13 min
In a bowl, whisk together rice flour, turmeric, and water until smooth. The batter should be thin, like crepe batter.
Watch outThe batter should pour like thin cream and just barely coat the ladle — if it's thick like pancake batter, thin it with a splash more water.
- 22 min
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add a drizzle of oil. Pour a ladleful of batter into the skillet, swirling to coat the bottom evenly. Listen for the sizzling sound.
Watch outSwirl fast the second the batter lands; a loud sizzle means the pan's right, silence means it's too cool and the bottom won't crisp.
- 35 min
Scatter shrimp and a few slices of pork over the batter. Add a handful of bean sprouts and diced green onion. Cover and cook until the edges are crispy and the bottom is golden brown.
Watch outWait until the edges pull away from the pan and turn lacy and brittle before folding — that's when the shatter is set.
- 45 min
Fold the bánh xèo in half and slide it onto a plate. Repeat with remaining batter and fillings.
- 52 min
Serve hot, accompanied by lettuce, mint, and fish sauce for dipping.
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