A typical dish, easily enough for two, is a cool but very spicy salad of shredded chicken with cabbage, carrots and onions in which the searing heat of the chili is offset by refreshing lime and mint.

Try some jaew, chilli dipping paste for balls of sticky rice, and laab, a fresh, spicy, minced-meat salad, tossed with mint and coriander.

While the fish marinates, assemble the rest of the ingredients, which produce a very spicy chopped salad, one that would be delicious even without the seafood.

The trendiest and most congenial Thai restaurant in town, Purple Haze offers Thai standards such as tom yum soup (Y58), red and green curry (Y46), and tangy, spicy salads - a house speciality - in a mellow, if slightly alarming purple-hued environment.

You can find all sorts of Malay specialities here, from ikan panggang (grilled skate) to rojak (spicy fruit-and-vegetable salad), and the night market positively crackles with energy.

In the well-run restaurant, a tasty pork schnitzel dinner costs around $3; good renditions of local dishes, like laap, a spicy ground-beef salad, around $2.

Some of the meze I have never encountered elsewhere: antep ezme is a thick, spicy "salad" (we would see it as a dip), crunchy with bits of walnut and sweet peppers, bound with olive oil and tomato paste.

Serve hot with spicy star-fruit salad (see recipe).