Umbrella Festival and Som-Tom (Papaya Salad) Recipe

On Sunday was the Umbrella Festival and I was able to go and see it with the children and maa-daan, mother in Thai, in the village of Bosang. Bosang is where the famous umbrellas that look similar to the ones that you might find in fruit cocktail glasses in the United States are from, except the umbrellas in Bosang are much larger. I will venture back to Bosang later to do more shopping, but today I just played tourist. I was able to see a children’s Thai band play on stage, and also some very beautiful Thai women perform a couple of traditional dances. To my amazement many of the dance moves were similar to the ones the children and myself now do in the morning as exercises. I hope that with a few more times performing the dance moves I will be pretty proficient at Thai dancing. After leaving the festival we went to lunch at a restaurant, and the owner was so kind, he let the children eat for free (the adults had to pay). Expecting we would then go back to the school we loaded back up in the cars but drove instead to the hot springs in the village of Sanpatong, east of the city of Chiang mai. Other than the hot springs being too hot to go in or having to pay 200 baht for the day to swim in cooler ones, I decided I would spend only 20 baht ($0.50) for four eggs in a basket that I was able to hang on the side of the hot springs pool and have boiled eggs to eat in 12 minutes. I could not believe that the water was hot enough to boil eggs until I tried it for myself. I ate three myself and gave the fourth to Izume who replied after eating the egg, “only in amazing Thailand.” Back to how hot it was at the hot springs, in Sanpatong you can expect to find every little market stand selling two things - eggs to boil and ice cream to eat. Before leaving, the children and adults all treated ourselves to ice cream, mine was cappuccino. Though the ice cream was good it did little to cool me off, it was not until I got back to the car and the A/C was turned on high for 10 minutes that I began to feel my body temperature lower. I guess the heat will get to you when you decide to wear jeans and a t-shirt to the hot springs! When we arrived back at the school it was going to be the children’s turn to make dinner, but after 10 minutes the children lost interest and the adults ended up doing most of the work with the exception of a couple of the girls, Gong-gwan and Ami who peeled a lot of the papayas. The meal the children were to cook was called som-tam, which translates to “papaya salad” in English. This traditional Thai dish was somewhat familiar to me because there is a song that we sing every day that has to do with making som-tam; I can even teach you the words (Thai of course) and the hand motions to go along. I have listed the instructions with the ingredients below to make som-tam on your own.

Som-Tam (Papaya Salad)

1) Take a stone bowl, grinder, and spoon. Put 4 Thai chilies (or as much as you can handle!), 4 pieces of fresh chopped garlic, and 2 teaspoons of fish oil into the stone bowl, then grind all the ingredients with the grinder softly while turning the ingredients with a spoon every few grinds for a few minutes.
2) Next, take a 1/2 handful of long green beans cut in 1” lengths, squeeze 1/2 a lime, put 1 spoonful of peanuts (not salted), 1 spoonful of shrimp (optional), 1 side of the legs of a sand crab (optional), 1/2 teaspoon of sugar (melted or not melted is okay, we used melted), a pinch of salt, and 4 slices of tomatoes, then again grind all the ingredients together with the grinder softly while turning the ingredients with a spoon every few grinds for a few minutes.
3) Finally, put two handfuls of sliced, peeled papaya slices and grind all the ingredients together with the grinder softly while turning the ingredients with a spoon every few grinds for a few minutes.

The som-tom should be served next to or on top of cooked rice (sticky rice is preferred). DO NOT feel like you must use a fork or a spoon, just use your hands to eat and enjoy!

NOTE: The amount of each ingredient needed was recommended, but if you like one ingredient more than another then just add the amount that will taste best to you.