Thai Papaya Salad Recipe – Also reminiscing the Floating Market in Global Village

This is our favourite Som Tam or the Thai Green Papaya Salad … it’s a very easy recipe to stir up. I tweaked the recipe a bit from a fridge magnet that I had collected on my Thailand trip. Every time we make it at home, the familiar sights and sounds from the trip comes alive.

Travelling to places – far away or even as close as your neighbour’s house, seem to be a distant memory. So does tasting new cuisines at different restaurants or food events. Every day, I keep rearranging our collection of fridge magnets that hold so many beautiful memories of our travels – our family vacations and my press trips, or souvenirs gifted by our friends from their holidays. May we continue gathering all images collectively, associated with all our beautiful memories. That’s the only forward to positively impact every person, who’s ever been part of our travel experiences – street-side vendors, small cafes and restaurants, hotels etc. It doesn’t really matter who they are… vendors, suppliers, creators, planners, marketeers… we are all in this together.

Today, I’m sharing the recipe of our favourite Thai Green Papaya Salad, or Som Tam… it’s a very easy recipe to stir up. I tweaked the recipe a bit from a fridge magnet that I had collected on my Thailand trip (image further below). Every time we make it at home, the familiar sights and sounds from the trip is alive. Refresh your travel memories by cooking dishes from different cuisines from your travels. Just to emphasise on the importance of keeping your good memories alive, I used this old album as my canvas backdrop. It belongs to my father and hopefully, he doesn’t find it missing!

Fridge magnets as travel souvenirs

Fresh Vegetables and Shrimp dip

Thai Papaya Salad

• Servings: 4
• Time: 15mins
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Category=Salad; Cuisine=Thai

Ingredients for Thai Green Papaya Salad

Shredded green papaya

Ingredients

4 cloves of garlic
2 red chillies, chopped
1 green chilli, thinly sliced
½ tsp shrimp paste
1 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp honey
2 cups green papaya (400 gms), shredded or julienned
2 tomatoes, sliced
2 tbsp salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
¼ cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped
2 Thai basil leaves, for garnishing
¼” long yardlong, Chinese long-bean or green bean

Method

• Grind garlic and red chillies in a mortar.
• Add shrimp paste, fish sauce, lime juice and honey.
• Add the shredded papaya, tomatoes, peanuts and mix lightly with a pestle while pounding lightly.
• Garnish with sliced green chillies, chopped coriander, sweet Thai basil and pieces of raw Chinese long-beans or green beans
• Serve fresh to enjoy this refreshing salad. We often refrigerate

Sights & Sounds of Global Village

Spicy Indomie with shrimp

Grilled mussels in spicy Thai sauce or butter and herbs

Thai red chilli sauce

Our favourite: grilled mussels with spicy Thai chilli sauce

The first of our many tasting platters

Global Village had a premature closing this season as a precautionary measure, in accordance to the call of the hour. For those who aren’t initiated, Global Village is a brilliant venue that showcase culture and cuisine from more than 90 countries around the world. My occasional visits to the Global Village had always been accompanied by visiting guests. The Z-Sisters would often joke that they hoped to visit Global Village before the decade ended in December 2019! Thankfully, they did. We planned a family visit during the school break last winter. The girls were thrilled and I fell in love with the Floating Market that had been built. Modelled after traditional floating markets in Thailand, more than 30 floating stalls were housed in boats lined the canal canal by the Far East Asia pavilion. Thai food was prepared in a street style manner inside the kitchens of their respective boat kiosks. The Floating Market offered a huge variety – sizzling seafood grills, freshly cooked authentic Thai food, Thai desserts like coconut ice-cream, tofu in coconut milk, mango with sticky rice and many other Far East-Asian specialities. We overindulged ourselves on mussels, grilled and served in two of its variations – in a spicy Thai red chilli sauce and butter and herbs, grilled squids, deep-fried calamaris and prawns. Between two successive visits, we tasted the popular Thai Green Papaya Salad, a spicy Indomie with shrimps and Seafood Fried Rice. Everything about the Floating Market reminded me of my trip to Thailand, where I had been fortunate enough to learn to cook authentic Thai red curry in a fishermen’s village. The aroma of red chillies, tamarind, Thai basil, fish sauce, galangal … the taste still lingers on – both from my cooking class in Thailand as well the Floating market in Global Village. https://www.globalvillage.ae/en/

One thing I’ve learnt from Lil Z… savour all your sweet memories in rainbow colours, like her shaved ice. Sweeter memories will be manifested, soon!

Unblogging it all… Ishita

The internet today is overloaded with information on COVID-19, do read and absorb whatever is necessary and adhere to the tips and advices that the respective authorities of your country of residence are sharing with you.

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Disclaimer: This isn’t a sponsored post, nor are there any affiliated links for any of the brands that may have been mentioned in this blogpost. We paid for all our meals at the Floating Market in Global Village. The subject, story, opinions and views stated here are my own and all images are from my personal album. While you enjoy reading my posts with lot of visuals, please do not use any material from these posts.