Green Papaya Salad | Lao Cuisine

Name: Green Papaya Salad | Lao Cuisine
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 3
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1/2 Green Papaya; 3 pcs Millet spicy; 2 cloves garlic; 6 Cherry tomatoes; 1 piece Limes; 2 tbsp Fish sauce; 2 teaspoons Sugar; 1 teaspoon salt

by Eat it, Lord Tong

4.6 (1)

Favorite

Difficulty

Easy

Time

5m

Serving

3

The green papaya salad is a product of the creativity of the Lao people. This hot and spicy salad originated in Laos and was introduced to central Thailand with Lao immigrants working in Bangkok, and then continued to be promoted to other countries. In Laos, they call green papaya salad tam maak hoong; in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and in Western countries, it is mostly called its Thai name: som tam. In 2011, CNN Go (Cable News Network) ranked the world's most delicious food TOP50, with green papaya salad in the list, ranking 46th.

Green papaya itself has a very mild taste, with a little bitterness and astringency, but it is a good medium for delivering flavor. It collects the surrounding spicy, sour, sweet, and salty flavors, and conveys it to human taste buds through its unique crispy and chewy texture. At this time, you will only feel its hot and wild, and forget its original taste.

Ingredients

1/2 Green Papaya
3 pcs Millet Spicy
2 cloves Garlic
6 Cherry Tomatoes
1 piece Limes
2 tbsp Fish Sauce
2 teaspoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt

Green Papaya Salad | Lao Cuisine

1. Prepare the ingredients

2. Wash the papaya, cut it in half, remove the seeds, use a tool to shred or use a knife to cut into thin filaments.

3. Wash the millet and cut off the top, cut the lime into wedges, and cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Set aside.

4. Put the garlic, chili, salt, and sugar in a mortar, mash and fuse.

5. Add the green papaya shreds and cherry tomatoes, and then continue to mash them with a wooden pestle, and blend them evenly.

6. Pour the mashed and mixed ingredients into the salad bowl, pour the fish sauce, squeeze into the lime juice, mix well and serve! (If it is refrigerated for a certain period of time, let it marinate for a while to add more flavor!)

Tips:
There are many ways to make green papaya salad, and the tastes vary. You can increase or decrease the amount of chili according to your preference for spiciness. If it is sour, you can squeeze more lime juice. As for the choice of side dishes, Laos and Thailand also have raw cowpea or peanuts. It depends entirely on the person who cooks the dish.

But unlike other salads, which can be mixed well, the essence of green papaya salad lies in the cooperation between the ingredients and the mortar. In Lao, tam maak hoong stands for "pounded papaya"; even in Thailand, the naming still follows the custom of Laos, and som tam means "pounded with acid." Due to its resistance to damage, papaya has a subtle reaction with the ingredients in the mortar, and finally presents an exquisite taste. No wonder, some people say that without a good mortar and pestle, you can't get a real green papaya salad!