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Som Tum Thai (ส้มตำไทย กุ้งแห้ง) — Crisp green papaya pounded to order with dried shrimp — sour, sweet & spicy in one bright crunch. Served at Narwhal Thai Table, Huntington Beach.
Salads

Som Tum Thai

ส้มตำไทย กุ้งแห้ง

Pounded to order in the mortar, as it has been since papayas first reached Siam — sour, sweet, salty and hot in one bright crunch.

Spicy
$12

Where it comes from

The papaya is not native to Thailand: Iberian traders carried it from the Americas in the 1600s, and by 1693 it was growing across Siam. Lao and Isaan cooks folded the crisp green fruit into their far older pounded-salad tradition, and tam mak hoong was born. It conquered Bangkok only in the mid-1900s, arriving with Isaan workers and sold outside boxing stadiums before sweeping the country. Som tum Thai is the capital's cut — dried shrimp, peanuts, a touch sweeter, the fire intact.

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