As most if not all my vegetarian recipes, this is once again developed for Britta. We had this salad in a trip advisor recommended food stop in Pakse, in Laos PDR. this was our last stop in our north to south Laos Christmas holiday. Most main courses in Laos are served with sticky rice and this was no exception. It originally is a non vegetarian salad as with most Asian salads because of the addition of fish sauce. Of course, salt can never replace the complex saltiness of fish sauce, but using salt to draw out flavors from the vegetables themselves balances out the sharpness of the salt, and thus rounds out the dish. This needs a mortar and pestle to prepare. A wooden one or a stone one would be best. The mortar and pestle in combination with abrasive ingredients like salt and sugar makes the 'dressing' for the salad. Again this is best served with flat bread and topped with smoked tofu.