Does any one know of a good alternative to Green Papaya for Som Tam? It's quite hard to get here, and when i can find it it's just so expensive...

Thanks

x

Does any one know of a good alternative to Green Papaya for Som Tam? It's quite hard to get here, and when i can find it it's just so expensive...

Thanks

x

sour green apples, carrots are popular alternatives....

Try with green mango.

I like it with cucumbers. I just have to scrape out the seeds/center part so it's not so watery.....yummmm

Does any one know of a good alternative to Green Papaya for Som Tam? It's quite hard to get here, and when i can find it it's just so expensive...

Thanks

x

sour green apples, carrots are popular alternatives....

In restaurants in the UK.....carrots are used to make up the quantity of shredded material so that less expensive Papaya is used. I don't think though it would be an alternative. Below is an alternative version made without Papaya which was made by a tv chef here in the UK. I've never made it but I personally doubt it would be as good as one made with Papaya. I might be surprised though.

? white cabbage - cut into thin strips

3 carrots - cut into thin strips

1 red onion - cut into strips

3 cloves garlic - finely chopped

3 tbsp peanuts - crushed

12 small tomatoes - quartered

1 small red chilli - finely chopped

3 tsp Nam Pla or light Soy Sauce

2 tsp soft brown sugar

Juice of 2 limes

Handful of fresh coriander

METHOD

Mix the vegetables in a large bowl, cover in cling film and leave in the fridge until ready to serve the salad.

Mix the lime juice, sugar and Nam Pla together in a small bowl and put in the fridge.

Before serving:

Add the finely chopped coriander to the vegetables in the large bowl. With a rolling pin handle, mash the vegetables a little to release the natural juices. Pour the lime juice mixture over the vegetables and serve immediately.

Does any one know of a good alternative to Green Papaya for Som Tam? It's quite hard to get here, and when i can find it it's just so expensive...

Thanks

x

Parsnips might be a good bet.

My favorite is a combo of two of the above, cucumbers (scraped as noted) and green mango. I like the cucumber bit in papaya also.

My wife in the UK uses cucumber as someone has already stated.It's good and tasty. I am not sure where the poster lives but in the UK papaya for som tam is also really expensive.

You could try the Chayote,in French,"christophene" with carrots.Will never be the same without papaya but it will be close.

Try with green mango.

This what they use in Thailand.

Wifey always used (cheap) carrots when we were in Europe, now we're in Thailand she uses (expensive) carrots. We have dozens of papaya trees but she likes the carrot version, I can't win

In fact there are many varieties of tam in Thailand, including papaya, cucumber, green beans, carrots, and more. Anything or fruit that can retain its crispness is a good candidate. Green beans work well. I like the cucumber variety a lot.

As stated, any crisp vege will substitute (and then, technically the name of the dish changes too, tam taeng etc).

Personally, because we use green papaya as a meat tendersiser (put strips of green papaya on tough raw beef and it will start to disolve overnight!), I am always a little leery of having papaya som tum....imagine what the enzymes do to my gut!

As stated, any crisp vege will substitute (and then, technically the name of the dish changes too, tam taeng etc).

Personally, because we use green papaya as a meat tendersiser (put strips of green papaya on tough raw beef and it will start to disolve overnight!), I am always a little leery of having papaya som tum....imagine what the enzymes do to my gut!

They are good for it.They help you digest your food.

Does any one know of a good alternative to Green Papaya for Som Tam? It's quite hard to get here, and when i can find it it's just so expensive...

Thanks

x

Ever hear of a rutabaga? Here is a link to a lao blog that shows a step by step. Rutabaga plok plok...lol

http://laovoices.com/2007/10/17/tum-ruba-is-back/

I hope I have not broken a rule by posting it. It really is a good Sum Tum. We add dried shimp and peanuts to ours. However, hold the praaaa and pickled crabs in mine.......lol.

Choke Man Choke

Choke Dee

*j*

swedes - nice cheap alternative

On Koh Jum in February, the restaurant had run out of pappaya one day, so they made me som tam with carrots. Excellent! The flavour is mainly from the garlic, chile and other seasonings anyway.