Vegetarian Sweet-and-Sour Soup

This vegetarian alternative to Canh Chua Ca (see the recipe in the Comfort Foods chapter) is great for those who do not like cooking with a fish carcass. It is one of the more playful dishes that the Vietnamese cuisine has to offer. The pineapple juice, combined with the tomatoes and herbs, makes for an extremely fragrant and complex dish. The little bit of heat in the soup hits you perfectly in the back of the throat. Taro stems may be hard to find, but