Salad Platter

One of the most important components of the Vietnamese dining experience is the salad platter. Xa lach, loosely translated, means “salad.” The quintessential salad platter (below) is composed of various fresh, leafy herbs, both common ones like mint and cilantro and more Vietnamese herbs such as coriander and perilla. It is the individual herbs that are of particular importance. They each represent a specific flavor–lemony zing, peppery, pungent, sweet–that can be plucked from the platter t