In case I haven’t sold you yet on Som Tam Sawng Nuu, I want to give you a quick run-down of the Isan food highlights.  Truth be told, some of this was originally part of my last blog entry, but I know that my stories can get a little *ahem* long-winded every now and then, so I decided to spare you for once and break the entry up into more manageable bites (pun entirely intended).  So, if my first post about Som Tam Sawng Nuu left you hungry (yup, still intended) for more, here’s a second helping 🙂

STICKY RICE:

Let’s begin with the basics.  When I am dining in the States, the bread basket is the seductress that temps me into culinary adultery.  I may have made a date with a beautiful, pink and juicy filet mignon (and let’s face it, a hot dish like that will always take longer getting ready), and I swear my intentions are sincere.  But once that warm, aromatic bread basket is placed in front of me, I’m a goner.  “Just a half a roll to curb my appetite” turns into a full helping of bread, turns into two helpings, and I turn into a two-timing food philanderer.

I know I am not the only American who turns into a raging cheater every time the bread basket comes around… you know you do it too.  Well, my friends, sticky rice is to Thailand as the bread basket is to America.  How carbs are so comforting and irresistible, I will never understand.  They just have this way about them.

Like I said in my last post, Som Tam Sawng Nuu specializes in Isan food– food from the northeast region of Thailand.  One of the best things about Isan food is that sticky rice, kaao niaw, is a staple.  I eat rice in Thailand everyday– steamed rice, fried rice, occasionally some rice porridge… but sticky rice is a whole different animal (well… you know what I mean).  It is a long grain rice and cooked to the perfect al dente so that you can pick it up in a big clump with your fingers and mold it into a lovely little ball o’ carbs to dip into all kinds of goodness.  Last week I went out to eat at Som Tam with some co-workers and was surprised to see some of the women NOT indulging in the sticky rice.  Turns out Thai women are not so different from American women– avoiding the carbs to maintain their dainty figures.  I know I need to learn some self-control myself, but I am too easily seduced to call things off with sticky rice.

STICKY RICE

SOM TAM:

Spicy papaya salad.  The namesake of the outfit in question.  Choosing a favorite food in a country so rich in flavor is a tall order, but it is with little hesitation that I say som tam, and more specifically Dton’s som tam, has stolen my heart and taste-buds to boot.  Som Tam Thai, the traditional version, includes shredded, unripe green papaya, long beans, tomatoes, chili peppers, peanuts, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, (and probably plenty of other indispensable, albeit undetectable, ingredients).  In the case of Sawng Nuu, sweet and delicious tamarind is added, freshly ground that morning.  The makings are all mixed and pounded [not quite] to a pulp with a mortar and pestle, and are of course served with sticky rice to soak up the spicy, sweet, and sour juices.  The juice is so delicious, in fact, that once the table’s supply of sticky rice has run out, I start slurping up the juice straight from my spoon (I care very little about table manners here in Thailand).  I shamefully await the day when I will  pour the remaining juices straight from the plate into my mouth… it is only a matter of time.

There are many  derivatives of the classic som tam. Dton’s restaurant offers a refreshing cucumber som tam, a green mango som tam, a fruit salad-esque som tam, som tam with crab or shrimp… and a few related dishes that we farangs never care to brave, such as the “stinky fish,” “salty egg,” and the bug-infested varieties.  I’ve tried the cucumber, mango, fruit salad, and crab and they are lovely, to be sure, but I am a som tam purist all the way.

SOM TAM THAI

NUA (and muu) DAET DIAO:

Daet diao is the ultimate bar snack.  Sun-dried beef (nua) or pork (muu) that is salted and fried, served with Thai sweet chili sauce.  It is tough and chewy and salty and delicious and so unhealthy, I know, but I’ve adopted a theory here that if I never step on scales in Thailand, anyways, then calories and fat don’t exist.  Regardless, this stuff is worth it.  The nua is my favorite.

Walking around the daytime markets, daet diao might turn a germ-o-phobe farang’s stomach.  You see the meat laid out on straw baskets on the side of the road for hours in the sunshine, collecting flies and other bugs I’m sure.  It is a pretty disagreeable sight, but, again, it is just too good to pass up.  And, as we decided over dinner last night, while this may not get a stamp of approval from any health inspector in the United States, there are plenty of unhealthy preservatives and hormones that we feed our bodies everyday.  Thailand might serve daet diao that was once a “meating” ground for bugs, but maybe this is still better than some of what we eat in the U.S.  Maybe?

NUA DAET DIAO

PLAA SAAM ROT:

A beautiful, golden brown fried red snapper that is crunchy on the outside, soft and succulent on the inside, and drenched with a delightfully sweet tamarind sauce.  It is called “Three flavor fish,” and I’m not really quite sure what those other two flavors are except to say 1) mouth-watering and 2) divine.  And, as always, the Saam Rot sauce makes the perfect companion for that ever-seductive sticky rice.

PLAA SAAM ROT

Are you convinced yet?  There are many other delicious dishes at Som Tam Sawng Nuu but these are the tops.  I am curious to go to a Thai restaurant in the states and see how well-represented some of this food is, or if they have it at all.  I’ve definitely seen spicy papaya salad on menus in the U.S. but I had never ordered it before.  Your homework: go to a Thai restaurant, try to order one of these dishes, and report back.  At the very least, maybe you can get your hands on some sticky rice!

destruction.