Thai Papaya Salad or Som Tam is popular throughout Southeast Asia. It's a refreshing, healthy salad that combines sweet, sour, salty, and spicy into one harmonious dish. Making Papaya Salad is more of an art than a science, and you will quickly settle on your own balance of ingredients to make it to your taste. This recipe is designed to be a good starting point to try out first.
Everyone has their own recipe, and word of street vendors who make good Papaya Salad gets around quickly and they build a loyal following, much like pizza places in the west.
Papaya salad has three basic types:
Som Tam Thai, which has roasted peanuts mixed in it. (this recipe)
Som Tam Bu, which has pickled crabs pounded in it.
Som Tam Lao, which has the juice of pickled mud-fish in it.
My personal favorite Papaya Salad is Som Tam Lao and Som Tam Thai. My mom likes Som Tam Lao and she's from Issan (North East Thailand) and my dad likes Som Tam Thai, he's from from Central Thailand so I got to eat and make both kinds growing up. Pickled mud-fish is definately an acquired taste, so we've decided to present the peanut version instead.
Papaya Salad really needs to be prepared using a mortar and pestle. When I was a little girl, my mom told me if I broke the mortar while making Papaya Salad, I have to dance around the outside of the house as punishment, so be careful because Americans have big houses.
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