The first time I tried Som Tam or Thai Papaya Salad was at a Thai restaurant in Long Island in 2007 when I attended a party as my dad’s plus-one. Until then, the only Thai dishes I ate were noodles or curries. One definitely can’t go wrong with ordering these types of dishes when first tasting Thai food. If I had more money in high school, I probably would’ve tried different appetizers, soups and salads, stir fried entrees, etc.
At this party, food was served buffet style – there were so many different dishes and I tried to sample as much as I could. While I don’t specifically recall every dish that was served, I remember only seeing one noodle dish. I found this strange based on my then-limited knowledge on Thai food. Alas, I piled on these short noodles onto my plate.
Once I sat down and started to eat, I realized that these were not noodles as there was an unusual crunch and refreshing sourness. This was a salad for sure, but what composed it fascinated me – I definitely found this dish interesting. Almost all the party attendees were Filipino and commented on how this pancit was odd. When I grabbed seconds, I looked for the name of this salad and a waiter told me that this was made of green papaya – this was the first time I even heard of green papaya!
Fast forward to 2013 when I took cooking classes in Bangkok. I was excited to learn how to make most every dish listed in the class itinerary, but especially this savory salad! Not only did I learn wat made this salad so oddly palatable and satisfying, but I learned that it is relatively simple to prepare especially if a Som Tam peeler is used. One can monotonously julienne green papaya and carrot or use a mandolin, but using this wavy vegetable peeler to shred green papaya or carrot into thin, even-looking strips is a lot easier in my opinion. The peeler can be used for other vegetables, too. In Thailand, there is a special Som Tam mortar that resembles a large vase. One would use a large pestle to gently mash and mix everything together in this large mortar, all which happens pretty quickly after ordering this salad in Thailand.
My interest in this salad lead me to try other Thai salads, all generally with multiple flavors satisfying different taste buds. To this day though, this remains my favorite Thai salad. While I like this combination of ingredients, other ingredients like lettuce or salted crab can be mixed in as well. I didn’t exactly measure ingredients but I used everything that was pictured below to make my salad.
Ingredients:
Green papaya
Carrot
Garlic
Red chili peppers
Dried shrimp
Peanuts
Tomatoes
String beans
Palm sugar or brown sugar
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Tamarind paste
Peel the green papaya and carrot. I used a Som Tam peeler to shred the green papaya into approximately 4″ strips (1). I stopped shredding after I felt like I was about to puncture the papaya’s core from all around. In the first picture, I already tore into the core from the middle. Alternately, one can split the papaya after peeling, scrape out the inside, and julienne the papaya. I used a knife to julienne the carrot (2) and added both the papaya and carrot into a large bowl (3).
From left to right, I had dried shrimp, chopped peanuts, minced red chili pepper, and minced garlic on a cutting board (4). In these large mortars specifically for Som Tam preparation, all the other salad ingredients and seasonings would be added and mashed with a large pestle before the green papaya and carrot are mixed in. To mimic this, I further chopped the ingredients on the cutting board, folding everything over regularly (5) until everything looked evenly mixed (6).
I cut the string beans into 2-3″ pieces and scored the grape tomatoes once, so while mixing they’ll break open just a little bit without releasing too much liquid (which I like). Alternatively, a large tomato can be cut into large chunks – just remove at least some of the juices and seeds if you don’t want a soggy salad. Add the tomatoes and beans to the salad (7) before tossing all the dry ingredients together.
For the salad “dressing” I find that a mixture of palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, and tamarind paste in a 2:2:1:1 ratio (by volume) works well.
Fish sauce adds umami (or at least saltiness). A vegetarian-appropriate substitution for fish sauce is soy sauce.
Palm sugar, a standard sweetening agent in Southeast Asia, provides sweetness that counters the strong flavors from the lime juice, tamarind paste, and fish sauce. I happen to have palm sugar, but brown sugar or turbinado sugar would be a fine substitute. To me, white sugar made this too sweet at the proportions I use to make the sauce/dressing for this salad, so I’d would recommend using less white sugar if that’s the only sugar available. I don’t advise the use of any sweetening agent that may impart a flavor, such as honey or Stevia.
Lime juice and tamarind paste add tartness to the salad. In (8) is the tamarind paste I had on hand, but tamarind can be purchased in block form or pods. Sour tamarind should be used here, not sweet tamarind – while the pods of sour and sweet tamarind fruit look almost identical, one’s taste buds can immediately help differentiate the difference! (Trust me.) Chip off a small chunk from a block of tamarind pulp or crack open a couple pods of tamarind. Add just enough hot water to help soften the dark pulp/meat. It’s easiest to make a thick but fluid paste from this by massaging this mixture by hand after it cools to an acceptable (but still warm) temperature to handle. There will be seeds – don’t add these into the salad.
This marinade should definitely be altered to one’s tastes. After mixing these wet ingredients together, I added most (but not all) of this mixture to the rest of the salad ingredients and continued to toss everything together (9). (I used the remaining mix to marinate a diced chicken breast that I stir-fried for a quick lunch with rice noodles.)
After tossing, the green papaya picked up some color thanks to the marinade (10). This tastes especially satisfying after sitting a few hours in the refrigerator but it can certainly be enjoyed now…
…just like this portion, which I ate almost immediately =]
This made for a delicious lunch at work for a few days, but a large quantity (like what I made) should be finished within a week at the latest. This can be enjoyed with sticky rice and other dishes, but makes for a satisfying salad as is also.
It should go without saying, but definitely adjust the amounts of salad add-ins to your tastes. When I made this for a party, I added less garlic and chili pepper. If you’re allergic to peanuts or are vegetarian, you can omit the peanuts and dried shrimp respectively. Add other ingredients (like lettuce or salted crab) if you want! Salads in general should be made to one’s tastes!
Let me know if you try making this =] but for anyone who likes Thai food, this is one of those dishes that I think should be tried at least once.
Tasty Trials and Errors 
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