Introduction to Vegetables, Salads, a Pickle & a Sauce

Please do not tell the good people of Thailand that vegetables are good for them. They have no idea. The only reason they eat their vegetables is because they like them. They like the way vegetables taste and the way they look. They like the way vegetables crunch and exude coolness when raw, the way they soften and shine when put to the flame.

They like lettuce and raw cabbage leaves as edible spoons: They use them to scoop up bites of chili-flecked salads and then eat the whole bundle with sticky rice. They like bean sprouts in a steaming bowl of noodles at the early morning market. They chomp on raw green beans and they pop cherry tomatoes like, well, popcorn.