Spicy Beef Salad with Crispy Rice Sticks and Fried Peanuts

Every once in a while I eat a dish that delights me in a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant and return to the China Moon kitchen to make a Chinese variation on the theme. Here is one such amalgam, a very light and delicious beef salad, full of compelling textures and pretty colors.

There is a lot of fuss to this dish, but most of the preparation can be done a day ahead. The beef should be cooked only an hour or so before serving for the plushest texture, but its taste will not fade if yo