Marinated Spinach Salad (Gomae)
Curried Chicken Salad with Red and Green Bell Peppers (Chicken Choilaa)
Warm Jellyfish and Chicken Salad
Traditional Thai Minced Chicken Salad (Laab Gai)
Poached Chicken Salad with Butter-Braised Carrots and Chinese Celery
Chawan Mushi (Egg Custard) with Shrimp and Dungeness Crab
Stuffed Tomatoes with Ground Prawns
Korean-Style BBQ Pork Lettuce Wraps
ASIAN SALADS are very different from the vegetable or grain salads popular on Western menus. Whether hot or cold, most of the dishes called “salads” include pickles, vegetables, meat or cold cuts, seafood and seaweeds and even noodles. The biggest difference, however, is that Asians don’t use salad dressings, since the salad ingredients already hold the flavour. You may find a few salads served with a dipping sauce to further enhance the taste.
Many of these salads, such as the Thai Green Papaya Salad and Japanese Marinated Spinach Salad, will be familiar; others, such as the Chinese Warm Jellyfish and Chicken Salad or the Twenty-First Century Salad, showcase newer, special recipes. Serve them family-style along with other more substantial dishes, or use them to start the meal. Koreans traditionally include at least four cold dishes (kimchi, daikon, dried fish, tofu or vegetables) at the beginning of the meal, northern Chinese often serve four, six or eight “small plates” of cold vegetables and/or meats to start, and Indians frequently offer finger foods and chutney once guests are seated.