rice paper

noun

|Updated on: 21 Jun 2018

Definition of rice paper

1 : a thin papery material made from the pith of a small Asian tree or shrub (Tetrapanax papyriferum) of the ginseng family; also : a thin paper made from various usually Asian plants (such as the paper mulberry)

2 : a paper-thin sheet of dough made from rice flour and tapioca that is usually used to wrap a filling (as of minced vegetables or ground meat)

Ground pork, carrots, onions and cellophane noodles are wrapped so that the green vegetables show through the translucent white rice paper.
—Donna Hilts

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Recent Examples of rice paper from the Web

Fujiko Shiraga, wife of the paint-by-feet Kazuo Shiraga, is represented by five-foot-high drawings of layered rice paper that the artist has scratched with her fingernails or torn in different ways.

— roberta smith, New York Times, "Japanese Gutai in the 1950s: Fast and Fearless," 14 June 2018
Wrap matchsticks of tofu with vegetables in rice paper for a Vietnamese spring roll.

— the washington post, OregonLive.com, "How to start teaching your kids to cook: an age-appropriate guide," 12 June 2018
The cake’s wings, for instance, were made from edible rice paper, hand-dipped in edible gold paint, which Phillips painstakingly attached, faux feather by faux feather, to the structure.

— elisa ludwig, Philly.com, "Mount Airy bakers' attention to detail is icing on the cake," 30 May 2018
The walls around here are like rice paper, and whatever your neighbor does on his side may as well be done right in front of you.

— aaron gilbreath, Longreads, "Judgement and Epiphany on Pittsburgh’s Number 79 Bus," 11 May 2018
The shrimp summer rolls ($4.40, unfried spring rolls in Vietnamese dining parlance) were perfectly supple, with soft rice paper encasing the lettuce-heavy cylinders.

— anna caplan, star-telegram, "It's difficult to choose a favorite dish at the impressive Thai Orange | Fort Worth Star-Telegram," 1 May 2018
They’re made with edible marker on sheets of rice paper, the kind that bakeries use to print pictures on cakes.

— meredith mendelsohn, New York Times, "What’s for Lunch? Soup, With a Side of Art," 10 Apr. 2018
Majordomo, which opened earlier this year in L.A., offers creative takes on basics and recently included short ribs with beef rice and shiso rice paper, and macaroni and chickpeas with black pepper.

— alexandra wolfe, WSJ, "David Chang’s Culinary Mash-Ups," 6 Apr. 2018
Slices of pork, shrimp, lettuce, mint, and vermicelli noodles are neatly wrapped up in a translucent rice paper before being dunked into a hoisin-peanut dip.

— christina liao, Vogue, "Beyond Pho and Banh Mi: 22 Must-Eat Vietnamese Dishes," 6 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rice paper.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.