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Taste By Greg Atkinson

A Standout On The Side

Crisp and compelling, green papaya salad takes us to the soul of Thai

LIKE MOST North Americans, I used to think of papaya as a sweet fruit, ideally suited for breakfast. I liked my papayas ripe, served with a squeeze of lime and a Hawaiian landscape. But I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. I know papayas get drafted into savory dishes from time to time. As long ago as the 1980s, when fruit salsas were at the cutting edge of coastal cuisine, I used to make a kind of papaya salsa to serve with grilled tuna.

So the first time I heard the words "green papaya salad" in a sentence, from my Laotian friend Phouvy Sylimanotham, I could see how it might be good. I was dubious about the green part — in my experience papaya was best when it was ripe — but Sylimanotham, who ran the pantry at Canlis restaurant when I was executive chef there, had never cooked anything I didn't like. And this salad was no exception. Almost flavorful enough to be a condiment, like a relish or a salsa, the salad is best eaten as a side dish with grilled meat and rice. The texture is crisp and compelling, but it's the flavor, a blend of sweet, salty, sour and hot, that makes the dish a winner. And once I tried this salad, I started seeing it everywhere.

Green papaya salad may be slightly less familiar than pad Thai or grilled beef salad, but it is among a handful of Southeast Asian dishes that seem well on their way to becoming fully integrated into the local cuisine. The only thing standing in the way of full assimilation is the slow pace of global warming. Until papayas start growing in our backyards, the dish is going to retain some of its foreign panache.

When I left Canlis, I missed those staff meals almost as much as I missed the camaraderie of the crew, so whenever I see this dish on a menu, I order it. But, sadly, I seldom find one as good as the one I remember from the restaurant.

Then, when the International Association of Culinary Professionals met recently in Seattle, I overheard some people at my table talking about Thai food, and I asked if anyone knew a good recipe for green papaya salad. A cooking-school teacher named Pranee Khruasanit Halvorsen said that yes, she could give me a recipe for Som Tum, as the salad is properly known.

Halvorsen, who grew up in Thailand, says that when she was a kid, she often helped out in the kitchen. "My regular assignments were grating coconut, pounding curry paste, and cooking rice," she reports on her Web site (www.ilovethaicooking.com). At age 12, when her mother went to work as a chef, Pranee became the substitute cook at home. "Later, I worked for the Public Health Department on the weekdays while helping my family's food business on the weekends."

When she moved to Seattle, she brought along a mortar and pestle for grinding curries, and her longing for the foods of her childhood prompted her to give a lot of parties where she cooked and ate with friends. "Thai food is everyone's favorite, and they are not patient for the next feast," she says, "therefore they started asking me for Thai cooking lessons."

Now, Halvorsen offers the classes regularly both in her home and at area cooking schools. She visits Thailand annually to collect and preserve family and hometown recipes, and she hones her culinary skills by participating in many classes, seminars and conferences. When she is not teaching, she enjoys helping her local community's fundraising with her Thai cooking and working on her cookbook.

Greg Atkinson is author of "Entertaining in the Northwest Style." He can be reached at greg@northwestessentials.com. Barry Wong is a Seattle-based freelance photographer. He can be reached at barrywongphoto@earthlink.net.