Yam Hed Ruam (Mixed Mushroom Salad)

Combine the fish sauce, lime juice, and palm sugar in a small bowl, stirring until the palm sugar is fully dissolved so the sweetness distributes evenly through the dressing rather than pooling in pockets that would make the balance unreadable. Add the sliced chilli and set the dressing aside. It should taste simultaneously sour, salty, and faintly sweet, with no single note dominating — adjust before use if the balance is wrong.

Bring a pan of salted water to a full boil. Blanch the oyster mushroom fronds, straw mushrooms, and enoki separately and in sequence — each variety for 30–60 seconds — lifting them out with a spider or slotted spoon and draining immediately, so the cooking stops at the right moment and each variety, which loses moisture and texture at a different rate, does not carry excess water into the bowl. The mushrooms should be just yielding with no raw resistance but should not have collapsed.

Heat a wok over maximum heat until a droplet of water vaporises on contact, then add the oil and, when it shimmers, lay the king oyster rounds in a single layer without moving them, so the cut faces stay in sustained contact with the metal and build a pale gold Maillard colour rather than steaming in their own released moisture. This is where the dish lives or dies: a wok that is insufficiently hot, or pieces placed too close together, will stew the mushroom and forfeit the depth the dressing depends upon — after approximately 2 minutes the underside should show that pale gold colour; turn each piece and repeat on the second side. Add the shiitake caps for the final minute, tossing briefly to colour the cut surfaces.

While the stir-fried mushrooms are still in the wok and the blanched mushrooms remain warm, combine all mushrooms in a wide bowl and pour the dressing over immediately, so the warm mushroom tissue draws the fish sauce and lime inward rather than letting the dressing sit on the surface as it would on cold flesh. Toss to coat every surface evenly.

Add the shallot rings, mint, and coriander, then toss once more, lightly. Taste a piece of king oyster and a piece of shiitake together with a little dressing: each mushroom should be clearly legible as its own variety — the deep umami of shiitake, the meatiness of king oyster, the delicacy of oyster — while the dressing makes each one more vivid rather than masking it. Transfer to a plate and serve immediately.