And after eating about a thousand examples of yam with him in Thailand, each less like salad than the next, I started to feel embarrassed about using the English word to refer to these dishes, like an uncle who still refers to the people of Asia as “Orientals.” <br /> <br />That is, until I watched him make a dish called yam khai dao. I mean, look at this dish! There are carrots and onions! There’s lettuce! Not only does it look like a Western salad, but it’s also about as easy to make. After you fry a couple eggs (in particularly hot oil, so the edges get brown and crispy), you make the sweet-sour-spicy-salty “dressing” and toss everything together.

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