Rice paper is the Vietnamese food made from thin rice-flour sheets dried into translucent wrappers.
To make it, a thin rice batter is steamed over a cloth-covered surface and then dried. The resulting sheets are light, brittle, and shelf-stable. Before eating, many varieties are briefly softened with water and used to wrap herbs, noodles, vegetables, seafood, or meat.
In Vietnamese cuisine, rice paper is called bánh tráng in much of the country and bánh đa nem in some northern contexts. It is used for fresh rolls such as gỏi cuốn and for fried rolls such as chả giò. The term can cause confusion internationally because some products sold as “rice paper” are made with mixtures that include tapioca starch, which improves flexibility and translucency.