One of the defining elements of Vietnamese cuisine is the abundance of fresh herbs and leaves that appear at every meal. I love this Vietnamese herb salad because it features some unusual herbs that may necessitate a shopping trip to a suburb with a large southeast Asian population. This is a great excuse for a vicarious holiday, but if that’s not possible substitute any Asian herbs you can get hold of such as mint, Vietnamese mint, coriander and perilla (shiso). Rice paddy herb – called rau om, ba om, and ngo om in different parts of Vietnam – has small succulent leaves and grows around bodies of still water such as rice paddies. It’s known as ma om in Cambodian, pak kayang in Thai and shiso-kusa in Japanese. Saw leaf coriander, also called Mexican coriander and culantro, is a native of Central and South America, which explains its Thai name, pak chii farang (foreigners’ coriander). It’s also known as long coriander and sawtooth herb and is called ngò gai in Vietnamese. I serve this Vietnamese herb salad with llemon-cured tuna or beef tossed through it, but you could also drizzle it with a little nuoc mam cham and serve it alongside any other Vietnamese dishes.
Serves 2 as a side dish
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