There will be oysters on ice for the omnivores among us, but also a crisp salad of raw green and white vegetables tossed with a clear, clean-tasting dressing of mint and ginger.
Among the Laotian entrees — most of which are served at room temperature — somtum poo, a salad of raw green papayas with crab claws, tomatoes, herbs, lime and fermented fish sauce, carried a surprisingly complex aftertaste despite its level-3 spiciness.
Today the little dining spot is Mr. Daher's one-man show, where on a recent visit he handled both the kitchen and the front of the house while serving a salad of raw green almonds with bright pomegranate seeds and yogurt, as well as sinia — a baked Palestinian casserole of meat and tahini that he upgrades, Acre-style, with a flaky white fish.
When, on my first visit to Nusara, a waitress tried to dissuade us from ordering the som tum "Lao-style" — a variation of the staple green papaya salad spiked with a strong dose of what she called "fermented anchovies" and tossed through with slices of raw green Thai eggplant — we egged her on and told her the dishes she didn't think we'd like were the dishes we wanted.
The nutrition card categorized one serving of vegetables into one of three groups: (a) one cup of raw green leafy vegetables such as spinach or salad; (b) one-half cup of other vegetables cooked or chopped raw, such as tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin, corn, Chinese cabbage, beans, or onions; and (c) one-half cup of vegetable juice.
The available survey documentation notes that, in general, one serving of vegetables was considered to be one cup of raw green leafy vegetables such as spinach or salad; one-half cup of other vegetables cooked or chopped raw, such as tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin, maize, Chinese cabbage, fresh beans or onions; or one-half cup of vegetable juice.
But there were also a lot of raw greens — pea shoots, watercress, parsley — and their freshness livened everything up.
But because greens aren't very dense, it actually takes about two cups of raw greens to make the nutritional equivalent of a one-cup serving of vegetables.
A wedge is a brash used-car salesman of a salad, a primal dish a rare thing for a plate of raw greens to be.
You add ribbons of raw greens to beaten eggs, then proceed to make the frittata, flipping it like a big pancake.
It is six ounces of fruit or vegetable juice, one medium apple, banana or orange, a cup of raw greens, or a half-cup of cooked vegetables or cut-up raw vegetables or cut-up or cooked fruit.
