Opportunity Blog

One thing any Thai in Isaan knows is where to get the best Som Tam. If there is one particular food that they eat here it is Som Tam. It’s main ingredient is green (we westerners would say unripe – but what do we know?) shredded papayas. Some other ingredients I can remember are prik ki nu (the peppers that can make it very spicy/hot), peanuts, maybe some long beans, a couple of small tomatoes, a few lime halves with the peel thrown in after squeezing, a few garlic cloves, dried shrimp and fish sauce. They often put in bpara which is some kind of fermented mudfish. My daughter in law who is currently in the U.S. translates that to “smelly fish” because if she ever cooks any it has to be outside, since my son can’t stand the smell. I can’t either, for that matter. Finally they throw in a spoonful of sugar and a spoonful of MSG.

What everything is thrown into is called a croc, like a big wooden pestle and mortar. They pound everything pretty well; put it all in a bag, rubber band the neck and you are ready to go.

Some of the ingredients, especially the bpara, can be an acquired tast. We get ours “vegetarian”, leaving out bpara, shrimp, MSG, most of the sugar and most of the peppers. It’s pretty hard for the lady to leave out all the peppers, so I let her put in two. This is Som Tam, and it’s supposed to be spicy. This places it at about level four of a typical Thai restaurant in America that has five levels of spiciness. If you ordered it spicy here it would be off the scale of an American Thai restaurant by a factor of three of four, so be careful. If you want to eat spicy like some Thais, break into it gradually.

If you leave out the bpara and shrimp, have them wash the croc or your Som Tam will taste fishy. As the picture shows, my restaurant has two crocs, with the one on the right fish free.

What made me think to write this post was that I brought home some Som Tam yesterday, and when it was time for lunch today Sue asked me to go get some more. We really do like it, and Sue in addition likes the low calorie aspect.

View Nang Rong Som Tam in a larger map

So where is the best Som Tam? This is one thing on which everyone here has an opinion, even me. Some Som Tam places are definitely better than others. After the Som Tam lady whose shop was in front of my house left to take care of her mother I was getting it from a place down at the other end of the block, but it just was not as good there. Finally the lady living to one side of me and a guy across the street both informed me of their favorite place. I tried it and agree it is the best. It is on 348, the north/south highway through Nang Rong.