Way back, two years ago, when I found out I was going to be spending my service in Northeastern Thailand, my host family from training took me out to a ส้มตำ (som dtam) restaurant and ordered a couple different kinds of this spicy papaya salad and told me, “People in Isaan eat this a lot.”
They were right (it’s on the lunch table at school every day), and they introduced me to one of my favorite Thai foods. Som dtam is a spicy salad made with shredded, green papaya. It literally means “sour pounded,” which makes sense considering the unripe papaya is kind of sour and to make it, you pound up all the ingredients with a pestle and mortar.
There are so many different kinds of som dtam, with a variety of regional specialties (Isaan-style includes fermented fish and rice-paddy crabs) and even one made with a bunch of different kinds of fruit. I’m going to share a recipe on how to make my favorite version: som dtam Thai.