Fish and Som Tum

In the regular hawker center next to the office building, there is stall that offers steak and salad stuff.  They also offer fish steak and som tum - Thai papaya salad.  A very good combination.

Som Tum is a very subjective food here in Thailand, everyone has there own recipes.  Like mac & cheese, you have the basic ingredients and then add in other stuff you may like.  So here is the basic recipe for Som Tum or Thai Papaya Salad:

      300 g. green papaya, shredded
      50 g. carrot, shredded
      50 g. yard long beans, cut into size 1" or smaller
      2 tomatoes, wedged (medium size or cherry tomatoes- the large ones does not work so good)
      1/4 cup of dried shrimps
      1/4 cup of peanuts
       2 tbsp fish sauce
      1 tbsp palm sugar
      2 tbsp lime juice or tamarind juice
      4 cloves garlic
      bird chillies (optional)


Directions
1. Pound the chillies, garlics and dried shrimps by mortar.
2. Add palm sugar, papaya, carrot, yard long bean, fish sauce, lime juice, tomato, and peanuts. Then pound until all ingredients mixed well.
3. Season with sugar, fish sauce, or lime. Serve with sticky rice and vegetables.

Number of Servings: 1







If you can't find green papaya in your Chinatown, then you can substitute it with shredded carrots, green apple slices, and even shredded  cabbage.  Instead of pounding the ingredients together, you make the som tum dressing and then toss in the vegetables.






You can put together a fruit salad som tum too - apples, pears, grape, jicama - cut up into bit-size pieces.  It's all very tasty.




Enjoy!