The heart of the dish is a young, unripe jackfruit. To make the young jackfruit salad, it is necessary to choose suitable young jackfruit to retain the tenderness of the flesh and mild flavor of the dish. After cutting a five-centimeter core of the jackfruit, a sharp knife is used to peel the jackfruit in diluted salt water to retain the white color of the jackfruit flesh and reduce the jackfruit latex. The flesh is boiled in hot water, well drained, and then cut into thin strips.

Young jackfruit mixed with shrimp is a very rustic dish but quite delicious. Take a small bowl of dried shrimp, stir-fry it with crushed garlic in a pan with hot oil and jackfruit strips, and then season it with some spices. Some even mix the salad with boiled pork belly slices.

The salad is topped with fried shallots, crushed roasted peanuts, chopped basil, and laksa leaves. The young jackfruit salad is best served with crispy Vietnamese sesame rice crackers with a small bowl of chilly fish sauce. The crunch from the rice cracker, tenderness from the jackfruit, and sweet and sour flavor from the fish sauce blend perfectly, creating a symphony of flavors.

Source: Saigon Times