Korean Job Discussion Forums

Wisco Kid · Joined: 07 Sep 2004 Location: Changwon

Recipe for som-tam:

throw a handful of chillies, a couple hands of green papaya, some dried shrimp, a whole crab and some nasty-a$$ sauce in a pestle and beat it with a mortar "bok, bok, bok" untill your arm gets tired.

Sorry for the innacuracy. I love thai food, but I can't stand som-tam--mostly cuz of the sauce, but also because I'm a vegetable and yeah, you can tell them to hold the crab, but they don't wash out the mortar between customers.

peppermint · Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:02 pm Post subject:

Hmm- I think what I had was Laos style, no shrimp and definitely no crab, but HOT!

jesse livermore · Joined: 24 Jun 2003 Location: 2nd floor

my laotion friends used to make this all the time back home.

bunch of green papaya, bunch of chillies, some cherrie tomatoes and some garlic. Hottest thing I ever ate.

Jesse

peemil · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Location: Koowoompa

coolsage · Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:52 am Post subject:

A decent papaya somtam will put kimchi to shame. It's a traditional mid-day snack made fresh, preferably by hacking the papaya off the tree before preparation. Yes, the crab is optional, not part of the Lao version, and it's tossed aside anyway, as are the 'mouse-dropping' peppers, unless one is really hardcore. If I could get my grubby little fists on a papaya in these parts, I'd love to serve it up to certain Koreans and videotape their reactions. Blowing away insular misconceptions, one taste-bud at a time.