My very first encounter with the pomelo was back in 1996, I was in my mid-twenties all excited about being on my secend-ever overseas trip in Vietnam. Mr K and I were in the north of the country and being driven around somewhere around Halong Bay. I remember our driver stopped for some reason. Water buffalo crossing the highway, traffic jam, I really don’t remember why.
As soon as our car stops a young local guy jumps out of nowhere offering us a funny-looking oversized grapefruit, already torn in half exposing pale pink segments of flesh. I think it was only US$1 so we bought it and continued driving. Juicy, tart, slightly sweet and sour. It was beautiful. A simple memory I’ll cherish forever.
serves 2-4
For the prawns, drizzle over a bit of oil and a good splodge of fish sauce. Mix well and set aside.
For the dressing combine all ingredients and mix well until the palm sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
For the salad combine all the ingredients and mix well. The trickiest part is the julienned green mango. It can be a bit tedious if you’re not trained with a knife, so just use a regular peeler and shave off long strips, then cut these lengthways with a knife. I’m pretty good with a knife but choose not to use it thanks to the wonderful julienne peeler I picked up in Krabi, Thailand many years ago. The ones I’ve bought in Australia are useless compared to this little beauty that only cost me $2.
Next heat the bbq and quickly cook the prawns while you’re plating up.
Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and mix it through gently.
Sprinkle the salad with a final flourish of fried shallots.
If you don’t want to go all fancy like I did in the top pic, plate up your salad in a more conventional way as I also did below.