Purple cabbage salad
© Photo by VnExpress/Tuyet Nguyen
Curly
strips of purple cabbage are probably one of the most beautiful things you can
put on a plate, and they taste great with just extra sweet and sour sauce.
Vietnamese
purple cabbage salad is mixed with orange strips of carrots and salt'n'pepper
shrimp and then topped with roasted peanuts and coriander. The final step is to
soften the strips with a mixture of vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, cooking oil,
and either fish sauce or salt. You can totally replace the carrots with ripe
mango and it will taste simply sublime.
Fresh mango salad
© Photo by VnExpress/ Thu Ky
The
southern dish is served in many restaurants, sometimes with a big price tag,
but it actually comes from the Mekong Delta and proves that a great dish does
not need hot pans or even ovens.
A
typical Mekong mango salad goes with dried snakeskin gourami, which is abundant
in the area. The southern farmers set fire to straw and grill the fish, but if
that sounds too complicated in an urban environment, you can put the fish on a
gas stove or just microwave it.
Once
the fish is fragrant and crispy, tear it into small pieces, remove all the
bones, and mix it with fresh mango. If you do not want the mango to taste too
sour, soak it in sweetened fish sauce for around half an hour before adding the
fish, then top with red onion and laksa leaves. The fish can be replaced with
dried shrimp or squid.
The
dish goes well for either lunch, dinner, or a late night chat with a bottle of
rice wine.
Dried beef salad
© Photo by VnExpress/Tuan Pham
Dried
beef salad is a popular Vietnamese urban snack that brings together fresh
papaw, carrots and dried beef, all thinly sliced and mixed with vinegar, fish
sauce and dried crushed peanuts. The perfect combination of sweet, sour,
peppery and salty flavors pleases any curious diner.
The
dish can be easily found in parks and markets around Saigon for less than $1 a
dish.
Pepper elder salad
© Photo by VnExpress/Hong Diem
This
is another super simple salad which is very healthy and nutritious. It's the
essence of simplicity, and many say you will need it and love it when you are
fed up with everything else.
The
entire pepper elder plant is edible, from its succulent stems to its shiny,
heart-shaped leaves and soft, fruiting spikes. It has a mustard-like odor and
is known to be an effective treatment for abdominal pain, acne, fatigue, gout,
headache, renal disorders and rheumatic joint pain.
For
a tasty salad, all you have to do is mix the plants with slices of onions and
boiled eggs, and add some sweet and sour fish sauce.
Pomelo salad
© Photo by VnExpress
The
only hard/annoying part of preparing this fruit-based salad is peeling the
pomelo and keeping the flesh undamaged. Then you just need to add shrimp,
slices of pork, roasted peanuts, coriander and the usual salad dressing.
BON
APPETIT!
By Vi Vu/ VnExpress