Som Tum Thai Kitchen’s Pork and Papaya Salad Platter, Broken Down

Originating in Laos before spreading through Thailand and the United States, papaya salad, or som tum, is a Thai restaurant standard: shreds of green papaya tossed in a funky, spicy, citrusy dressing. But rarely does it take up the opening page of a menu like it does at downtown’s Som Tum Thai Kitchen. Owner Sirapob Chaiprathum, who goes by Q, named his restaurant after the dish his mother would make while he was growing up in Udon Thani, Thailand. Som Tum goes through roughly 200 pounds of papaya every week, ending up in eight to 10 versions of the dish. The salads are also the focal point of its tum tad, roughly translated as “papaya salad on a tray.” The platter is a brilliant cacophony of colors and aromas, heady with pork and fish sauce.

Papaya salad Diners choose between som tum and tum Lao salads, both made with hand-cut, unripe papaya and cherry tomatoes tossed in aromatic fish sauce, lime, and tamarind dressing. The tum Lao is Q’s favorite, with its extra-funky fermented fish sauce and Thai chiles to spice things up…way up, if you order anything above mild. The som tum has a mellower fish sauce, plus dried shrimp and palm sugar—long beans and peanuts add textural variety.

Pork sausage Smooth and tender half-moon slices of cooked sausage, fragrant with black pepper, garlic, and even more fish sauce.

Bamboo shoots Slivered and gently pickled, they serve as vegetal palate cleanser for the medley of other flavors.

Marinated raw pork sausage A mainstay of Thai and Lao dining. Ground pork and pork skin cure with sticky rice and Thai chiles until bright and tangy with a delicate chewiness.

Vermicelli noodles String-thin, springy, chilled rice noodles briefly boil before landing on the plate in tight bundles.

Dried pork skin A quintessential dish of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, these feather-light, curly puffs melt in your mouth as fast as you can crunch through them. Dunk them in the fish sauce dressing for extra oomph.

Boiled eggs These spend six or seven minutes in a simmering pot until they’re set but still on the jammy side. They cool to room temperature before they’re sliced in twain.