FOOD AND BEAUTY: Southeast Asian Inspired Red Rice Salad

I have been interested in Southeast Asian food for years, Vietnamese, Thai, Singaporean, and Malaysian especially. The way they use spices in almost every dished, and even in some dessert, I find it very interesting. Probably because I grew up with Cantonese food, which is famous for the freshness of the food materials with not too much seasoning. This year in summer, I finally got a chance to go to Malaysia and dig into Malaysian food. It was a pleasure exploring the actual Malay food. After the trip, I am even more addicted to these Southeast Asian food. And of course, I brought tons of spices back home. You probably will see me making Malaysian food all the time. : P

Today's dish is not truly exist. Yes, I made it up myself. I was inspired from a traditional Malay dish called "Nasi Ulam". Nasi means rice, and ulam refers to a mixture of herbs and spices. I added some vegetables to give the crunchiness, and some salad dressing to freshen it up. It is a very simple and healthy dish, and you can get all the ingredients from any Asian stores, or even the normal supermarkets. Feel free to switch the vegetables in the salad and make your own favorite dish!

So, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

for the salad:

Some sweet lettuce (just use anything on hand)

150 g of cooked red rice
A handful of cherry tomatoes

1 hard-boiled egg

2 sprigs of fresh mint

2 sprigs of fresh coriander
1/2 sprig of lemongrass

1 tsp of fresh ginger

1 /2 tsp of garlic

1 birdeye chili
some baby lettuce

a sprinkle of roasted sesame seeds

a sprinkle of coconut flakes

for the dressing

juice of one medium size lime

1 tsp of fish sauce

1/4 tsp of honey (or nectar agave, brown sugar, palm sugar, whatever you want)

a pinch of black pepper

1 tsp of coconut oil

Recipe

1. Mince the garlic. Finely chop the ginger, mint, chili, and coriander. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, and quarter the egg. Rinse the sweet lettuce.

2. Mix the ingredients for the dressing.

3. Combine everything and sprinkle the sesame seeds and coconut flakes.

4. EAT!

From left to right: lemon grass, mint, and garlic.

Oh yah. Actually, you can use shallots or red onions instead of garlic. That's what they used for Nasi Ulam, but I'm a weirdo.. I don't like raw onions...