Now that I'm older and know how to relax a bit, I enjoy young jackfruit mixed with pig's ears, fresh rice noodles, peanuts, and various herbs. This jackfruit salad usually makes a lot of noise in the house because it's delicious and healthy, high in fiber, good for the stomach, and inexpensive, around 30,000 VND/kg. It's a great substitute for a main meal with lots of fried and stir-fried dishes, rice, soup, fish, and meat; it's delicious, filling, and still feels light on the stomach.
Jackfruit salad
I really enjoyed the bustling atmosphere of our small family in the cramped kitchen. My wife busied herself peeling young jackfruit, chopping it into palm-sized pieces, rinsing it with salt water before blanching it to remove the bitterness, and then finely shredding it. My daughter boiled and sliced pig's ears, cut rice noodles into short pieces, and then turned to making the sweet and sour fish sauce for mixing. She always... exaggerates the tasks she's in charge of. She says that slicing pig's ears must be done at an angle, so that the cartilage is evenly distributed in each piece. When you eat it, if each piece makes a "crunching" sound, it's... very difficult, much harder than my older brother's peanut roasting. My son chuckled, "Why don't you say cutting rice noodles is harder than... reaching the sky?" And since he was already criticizing, he also criticized Dad's vegetable preparation as a trivial matter? "Do you dare?" I burst out laughing. The kids' mother tapped the knife handle on the cutting board with a joyful look in her eyes: "Will you be quiet? You're all from the same mother, but you're always fighting each other!" The son ended the argument very briefly: "If you're right, admit you're wrong, don't argue, Mom!"
The whole family gathered around the jackfruit salad, though no longer bustling about, everyone was busy and "diligent." The young jackfruit was soft, subtly sweet, and mildly nutty. The pig's ears were moderately fatty, and indeed, as my daughter said, each bite made a "crunchy" sound. Along with peanuts, mint, and cilantro scattered around the young jackfruit, it created a gentle aroma, a kind of subtle fragrance, both fragrant and probing the diner. In the countryside, people often break off pieces of grilled rice paper to use as a spoon to scoop up the jackfruit salad. This rustic way of eating has even been immortalized in a rhyme: "Rice paper scooping up young jackfruit / Crispy and fragrant, so you scrape up every last bit of herb."
Jackfruit salad, eaten at home, is a rare treat, something we only eat as a substitute for rice, never thinking about... alcoholic drinks. For a group of friends, it seems to be more popular for a few reasons: Firstly, it's cheap and delicious, and we never get tired of it. Secondly, it's exciting thanks to a few glasses of rice wine to spice things up. Thirdly, we chat about business and the harvest together. Therefore, every time we receive a message from the group: "4 PM this afternoon. Mitro. The Starfruit Tree," everyone gets excited. "Mitro" is a playful name, like a password, for the "jackfruit salad" that the friends have agreed upon. "The Starfruit Tree" is the "playground" at a friend's house with a starfruit tree that provides shade in a corner of the yard.
With everyone lending a hand, a visually appealing and delicious jackfruit salad was quickly prepared. A small table was set up next to the starfruit tree, under the swaying leaves in the cool southerly breeze – truly delightful. Conversations drifted, cups clinking, eventually leading to discussions about the young jackfruit season and how this salad was even tastier than the last. One guy, in a burst of enthusiasm, called a friend far away: "Do you remember what unique dishes our hometown has this season? We're making jackfruit salad right now!"
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