is a salad in which unripe papaya cut into strips is pounded in a mortar together with ingredients such as garlic,
chilis, fish sauce, palm sugar and peanuts. The pounding combines the different flavours of the ingredients.
The epithet “Thai” is used to distinguish this Som Tam variation from the original variations from Isaan in the north-east and those from Laos . In contrast to
the som tam from central Thailand, these usually still use fermented fish sauce, but no peanuts and are usually significantly hotter.
