Thai Salad with Cucumber

This Thai salad with cucumber tastes absolutely delicious. I always thought that som tam style salads absolutely had to use papaya until my girlfriend, who is from Thailand’s northeastern Isaan region, showed me that you can make what is one of my favorite ever Thai salads, but with cucumber instead. Happy days! Especially given the cost of papayas outside Thailand: in my country it’s like $7 for unripened papaya of the type you need to make som tam.

Anyway, before moving on to this Thai salad recipe, note that nam pla raa (fermented fish sauce) is an absolute essential if you wanna make this as authentic as possible. The condiment is available in any good Asian store, and you can also buy 10 bottles of it pla ra on Amazon for $89, which is a decent deal, particularly if you have friends that like to cook authentic Thai salads. You also should really look to invest in a proper Isaan-style mortar and pestle.

Anyway, that’s enough waffling by me, I just wanted to make sure you have the ingredients needed to make this salad taste as good as it deserves. After you have the right ingredients and equipment, the making of the recipe is an absolute breeze. Here we go with my Thai salad with cucumber recipe. Enjoy this Thai food classic dish 🙂

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