Som Tam Lao
As well as being tasty its also a very healthy starter.
Som tam lao. Formerly is known as tam mak hung. The difference named called is to differentiate between thai and laos papaya salad. Som tam is the delicious spicy thai papaya salad popular throughout thailand and a staple in the many street food markets. The main ingredient is the fermented fish and papaya.
Som tam laos is a papaya salad adapted from laos the menu varies up to each community. Som tam lao som tam poo plara green papaya salad with crab and fermented fish sauce is a spicy and flavorful thai salad with green papaya crab and fermented fish sauce. We quickly learnt that grinding up chillies in a pestle and mortar makes a dish even more spicy than anticipated. Pronounced som tam in laos as tam som lao.
Thai green papaya salad which in thailand is known as as som tam is one of the most commonly available and most popularly consumed dishes in all of thailand. But its not called spicy without reason. Originating in the northeastern part of thailand isaan bordering the country of laos the dish is a staple for the entire area. Green papaya salad is a lao spicy salad made from shredded unripe papayaoriginating from ethnic lao people it is also eaten throughout southeast asialocally known in thailand as som tam thai.
However other pounded salads in thailand are consistent with the lao naming convention in which the word tam pounded is listed first. Despite the use of papaya which one may think of as sweet this salad is actually savory.