How to make Thai Papaya Salad, Som Tum.

While papaya salad is a signature dish in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, it’s the Thai version that is the most famous. However, food historians believe that this dish originated in Laos.

This is because papaya salad is especially popular in Thailand’s northeastern region of Isaan, which shares a border with Laos. What’s more, papaya and chili have been key ingredients in Laotian cuisine since the 1800s. Although the Thai green papaya salad we all know and love is a little different from the papaya salad, they serve in Laos, which often includes green eggplant and fermented fish paste.

In the Lao-Isaan dialect, Som Tum salad was originally called tum bak hoong. The ‘bak hoong’ part translates to mean ‘papaya’ while ‘tam’ means ‘pounded’. Since making green papaya salad involves a lot of pestle and mortar action, it makes sense that it was once known as ‘pounded papaya’.

The name change came as a result of mass migration from the Isaan region to Bangkok. Migrant workers shared their love of the papaya salad they grew up eating, with both the recipe and the name changing over time for Som Tum to become the street market staple it is today. Although, the ‘pounded’ part of the dish’s name has remained, as Som Tum translates as ‘pounded sour.’
When you think of Thai food, Som Tum is one of the first dishes that comes to mind. As such, it comes as a real surprise to learn that this dish didn’t even originate in Thailand, but rather in Thailand’s neighboring country of Laos!

Of course, this doesn’t make Som Tum any less of a star in Thai cuisine, where they’ve perfected the art of getting that balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy just right. This