Thai salad: Som tam

there are a lot of different dilicious Thai dishes; One of my favorites menus is  ''Somtam''or Thai  spicy and sour papaya salad.I can say this  is such a must try for foreigners. Somtam can be divided into several different types due to the extra ingradients added for seasoning. the major and essential   ingradient is green papaya that must be grated and then mixed in  the mortar with the other ingredients and salad dressing  prepared from  fish sauce, lime juice , chilli , palm sugar. Here is a run-down on the most common variations:

Som tam Thai: papaya salad  in with crunchy roasted peanuts, and dried shrimp.

Som tam poo: papaya salad seasoned by salty crab

Som tam poo pla ra: papaya salad with the addition of salty crab and some pla ra( fermented fish)

Som tam Thai-Poo: Som tam thai  with the addition of salty crabs.
However these days this kind of Thai food has more various menus that usually named after the ingredients and the preparing method. Apart from papaya  Som tam can be made of  other ingredients such as mango(Tam Mamuang), curcumber(Tam Taeng), carrot(Tam Carrot), yardlong bean(Tam Tua), corn(Tam Khaopod)
 In addition Som tam sellers still create new version of  Som tam to introduce to their customers. Recently Som tam tard  ( papaya salad  and many side dishes served on a big tray) and Som tam tord (crispy fried papaya salad) have just been  introduced and  becomethe   new popular ordered items.      

somtam tard                                                                    

som tam tord    














Som tam is usually accompanied with khao niao (sticky rice),but some people (especially in the northeast of Thailand)   prefer to have it with khanom chin(rice noodle).Since som tam is loved by Thai people around the country. somtam sellers canbe found everywhere and nowadays a convenient store called "Family mart" has produced ready-to-eat  som tam khaopod( sweet corn salad) in a plastic glass-like container. I had tried once but such small portion couldn't fill my stomach lol.