Yea, that's been my experience with papaya...it turns mushy and looses the texture. maybe we just overdid it with the papaya????

and tenderizing by 'bashing' destroys the texture as well.

one thing not mentioned in this thread was the importance of aging meat for a couple of weeks, just following slaughter. don't know if that would tenderize a grass fed thai-bhrama cow.

so.......i've come to the conclusion that boiling for hours is the best way to deal with tough thai beef. altho tough, i find thai grass fed beef quite tasty and feel better about eating it than the tender, hormone fed imports at 4x the price.

I tried a T Bone steak last night ( albeit a very thin slice) left it compressed with Papaya for two days in a bag but found that although very tender, the papaya appears to have runied the meat fibres and it ended up a little "mushy"

Kiwi fruit also tends to make the meat mushy,  try onion juice and lemon juice together.