Here we go with my first review of the new year! Huzzah! And it's another grab & go item that's likely only found in the Portland, OR area - sorry! My local Whole Foods and New Seasons have such a yummy array of grab & go vegan goodies, it's often hard to pass up getting something if I'm shopping and it's meal time. Today's lunchtime treat is brought to you by Bui Tofu, a Vietnamese tofu shop located on the east side of Portland. How does it fare? Read on to find out!
Interested in purchasing some salad rolls for yourself? I would guess they would have them in their actual shop, but I've never been there so I don't know for certain. Their website doesn't exactly list locations offering their goods. I found this particular salad roll at my local New Seasons for $5, though I'm sure I've seen them at Whole Foods as well.
Nutritionally, this salad roll isn't great, but isn't entirely junk food either. It's hard to make a solid judgement call as there is no nutrition facts label, just an ingredients list. The lettuce does make up for the bulk of the filling, and the tofu does provide a good amount of protein, and that's all the good I really have to say about it.
The roll on it's own probably isn't too bad though the tofu is fried and the noodles and rice paper certainly add no nutritional value. I think the real issue here is in the peanut sauce, I'm sure if it had nutrition facts, the fat, sugar and sodium would be through the roof. I'm also a bit perturbed by the presence of the artificial coloring & potassium sorbate.
Tasting time! So here you have a rice paper stuffed with tofu, lettuce and rice noodles. Sure, there was supposed to be some basil in there too, but I didn't get any until I was over halfway through the roll. On the side was some peanut sauce and additional spears of tofu. If it wasn't for the peanut sauce, it would have been incredibly bland, though the sauce itself tasted sweet, a bit too salty, and it had a tiny bit of heat. There were some actual chunks of peanuts in the sauce, but they had that unpleasant, kinda rubbery texture that peanuts will get when they've been swimming too long in a liquid.
The roll itself was very fresh, the lettuce nice and crisp, though the rice wrap was splitting here and there, which made it messy to eat. I also liked having the two additional spears of tofu on the side, but I wonder if this package was intended to have 2 rolls instead of extra tofu, since the package itself says "rolls". I was happy to have the extra tofu instead of another roll though, the tofu is the same as what came inside the roll, and it's rather unique as that it is actually made with scallions and mung bean vermicelli in it! The ingredients also mentioned mushroom, but I didn't notice any mushroom in the tofu. On it's own, the tofu is pretty darn tasty.
Would I buy this roll again? That's a solid maybe, but I would definitely buy the tofu on it's own again! Perhaps I need to make a trip to the actual Bui storefront to see if they offer it on its own there. I would definitely say it's worth trying if you're willing to eat it with the sauce, or provide your own sauce with it, as I mentioned above, the roll on its own is very bland. Just be warned it does get very messy, so make sure you eat it someplace where that isn't an issue!
Bui Natural Tofu.
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