— Sripraphai (64-13 39th Ave in Woodside, near the 61st St. subway)
* both are cash only *
I am an incorrigible food macho. My inability to say anything but "spicy" or "rare" when asked, by waiters, how I like my food, has gotten me in trouble at Korean barbecue parlors and Cambodian dives alike.
Which is how I once met my match in a green papaya salad. I was in a church parking lot in St. Paul, MN, with my indulgent boyfriend, Ashton, browsing a food market run by Hmong farmers from Laos. I insisted that we sample a plate of papaya salad, which two ladies were whipping up at a food stand right in front of us. They piled shaved papaya, sliced cherry tomatoes, chilies, toasted peanuts, and other delectables into a giant wooden mortar and pestle, pounding the hell out of it. One of the ladies asked me how hot I wanted my salad: What could I say? Let's just say I have never tasted anything so delicious — or so mind-numbingly painful.
It took me a while to get back on the horse after the Minnesota experience, but my love of papaya salad has survived undimmed. I can't get enough of the crunchy-soft-sweet-sour-fish-sauce experience. Ashton, however, generally chooses not to partake.
There are several excellent locations to sample papaya salad, or som tum, in Queens. Sripraphai (see my full review here), often referred to (and not just by me) as the best Thai restaurant in New York, serves up a killer version of this classic, spiked with two colors of fresh chilies and a perfect balance of flavors. (A word to the wise: order it "MILD." I nearly choke every time I say it, yet am always grateful when it arrives. It still packs a punch, I promise.)
In my own beloved neighborhood, Arunee Thai does up an excellent papaya salad ("MEDIUM"), a bit sweeter than Sripraphai's, and with a larger green bean quotient (which I fully support). It makes for very festive take-out (see above).
I've sampled papaya salads at Vietnamese and Burmese restaurants (Village Mingala, in Manhattan, serves a nice one), where it is generally less mouth-searingly hot and never quite as flavorable as the Thai version.
My respect for this dish has only increased since I learned to make my own, with a bit of help from a cookbook. In the place of a mortar and pestle, I use a narrow, high-sided bowl and a potato masher. The only difficult thing here is shaving the papaya: I've done it by hand, but if you have a cuisinart with a grater attachment, this is the time to use it. — May 2006
Som Tum
(Adapted from "Real Thai," by Nancie McDermott)
Ingredients:
4 to 6 small green chilies; 1TB chopped garlic; 1ts chopped shallot; 1 small green, unripe papaya, peeled and finely shredded — about 2 cups; 5 long asian green beans, sliced into 2-inch segments; 1ts palm sugar; 1/4ts salt; 2TB fish sauce; 1 lime, well washed, halved and then quartered; 10 cherry tomatoes; 2 handfuls unsalted peanutes, roasted; 1/4cup dried shrimp; 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
Directions:
Combine the sugar, salt and fish sauce, then squeeze the lime slices into the mixture, reserving them for later. In a large mortar, combine the chilies, garlic and shallot. Grind and pound with pestle until broken down. Add the papaya and pound until the shreds become limp and soft, several minutes. Scrape down the sides and turn the mixture as you go. Add the green beans and pound to bruise them. Add the liquid mixture and the lime pieces, continuing pounding. Add the tomatoes, peanuts and shrimp, and pound just once or twice more. Toss, taste, and adjust seasoning if necessary. Top with fresh cilantro.