Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Did you know that Chinese people don't eat salads? Well, by that, I actually mean that salads are not authentic Chinese cuisine. Vietnamese people eat all sorts of salads though, and since my family is half Vietnamese and come from Vietnam, we grew up eating this salad (which I am having for lunch today).

Ingredients:
1 cup cabbage shredded
1/3 cup shredded chicken (just plain chicken, no spices)
1/8 cup onions sliced thinly
10 leaves mint coarsely cut

3 tablespoons water (warm)
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon fish sauce (to taste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoon Sambal Oelek ground fresh chili paste (the one with the green plastic cap and rooster)

The ingredients for the dressing are listed in the order in which they should be added. Combine the sugar and water first (the water should be warm so that the sugar will melt easily). Then add the lemon juice and vinegar. You should taste each step to see that it tastes right, but most of you will not know what it's supposed to taste like anyway so I'm really only talking to my sisters, who already know how to make this dish. *sigh*

But, the point is that when you get proficient at this, it's really a dressing that is to your taste, so the amounts won't really matter. In fact, I don't really know if those are the correct amounts or even the amounts I used. I only approximated what I used, so you will have to experiment on this yourself.

Please remember to TOSS THE SALAD, and then lit it sit for about 5-10 minutes before you eat it so that the veggies soak up the flavors.

I was invited to Green Thumb McGillicutty's house for dinner a couple weekends ago and this is what I brought! There was a lot of leftovers, though.