Instructions: My neighbor Jack is legendary for his Fourth of July cookouts - elaborate feasts that he organizes each year, with a little help from his friends and neighbors. Ill bring something typically Asian, I told Jack this year.

Ill bring salads!

The look on Jacks face told me that he was, to say the least, underwhelmed.

Asian salads? Do they even eat salads in Asia? The answer is yes, and not exactly. Yes, most Asian cuisines have a variety of salad dishes, but they are seldom the tossed green varieties Americans are most accustomed to.

In asia, salads are not strictly vegetarian fare. Seafood and poultry - and at times beef and pork - are common ingredients. Vegetables served in an Asian salad do not have to be, and often are not, raw. Fresh fruits are often mixed in, as are nuts, which provide an interesting contrast in texture.

Many of these salads are served as vegetable side dishes to perk up the appetite. We find that in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, as well as most Southeast Asian menus, such as Thai and Vietnamese. The squid salad with lime dressing that I am preparing for Jacks party is a good example.

In recent years, Asian food has made quite an in-road into Western cuisine.

But that road travels in both directions. Many Western dishes, like salad, have traveled East and ended up, after the addition of a twist or two, on the typical Asian dinner table. Such is the case with lemongrass salad. Though lemongrass is a common ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking, the concept of using it in a salad is relatively modern.

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