I love Thai food. The interplay of unique flavors, the balance between salty and sweet, the clean palate, all make up entirely new taste combinations. I recently picked up Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's brilliant book, Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Trip Through Southeast Asia. This enormous book is filled with both tales of the authors' travels throughout this region of the world, as well as easy-to-follow recipes of the delicious sorts of food eaten on their excursions. While flipping through the pages, dog-earring the recipes I had to try, I came to a recipe for Pomelo Salad that looked intriguing.

The pomelo, a typical Southeast Asian citrus fruit, now sold in the U.S., looks like a giant grapefruit. Usually less juicy than a common grapefruit, with a thick spongy skin, they can range in flavor, from quite sour to pleasantly sweet. You never know what kind of pomelo you will end up with until you try it. I scored an enormous pomelo for my salad. Cutting off the pithy outer skin to behold the gorgeous segments of fruit, I tasted, expecting a sour melange of citrus. The pomelo that I obtained was actually very similar to a Ruby Red grapefruit-- rosy exterior, and sweet-sour taste. In fact, my pomelo was so similar to a grapefruit, and the salad was still so delicious, I think I would use grapefruits in the future.

I made the typical lime juice dressing complete with the salty, marine kick of Thai fish sauce. I dry roasted peanuts and coconut, diced shallots, chopped mint, and deseeded chiles, careful to avoid any contact with my eyes. The salad is meant to be assembled at the last minute, so all of the flavors stay crisp and clean. My kitchen counter looked like an apothecary shop, with all of the little bowls carrying dishes of chopped or sliced ingredients, strange on their own but beautiful tasting when married together.

Finally I was ready to toss and serve. Each dish was emptied into my bowl of pomelo supremes; I tasted, and the combination was ideal. Salty and sweet, with a kick from the chiles, and washed with a freshness from the addition of chopped fresh mint. Crunching on the dry-roasted peanuts, and savoring the bits of grated coconut, I imagine this salad to be the perfect balm for a hot summer night, when just the idea of turning on the stove makes you break out in a sweat.