Hi Preyanka,

We get all of our Asian ingredients from our local Asian market. We are not sure where to find these items in India. Maybe some of our other viewers can help.

I’m also wondering about this. I live in bangkok and have som tam for lunch every day…with about 7 red chillies in mine!

I’ll be moving to Mumbai next month and would love to know where to buy green papaya, palm sugar, fish sauce, and lemon grass/kaffir lime leaves/galangal for tom yam.

Oh and whoever said the garlic is not authentic is wrong. There are many types of som tam, and my som tam lady here in BKK uses garlic, tomato, and raw green beans in all her som tam.

This is the way she makes it:
She pounds the red chilies and two cloves of garlic for a few seconds. Adds the palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, green beans, and a roma tomato cut into quarters. Then adds the shredded green papaya, peanuts, and dried shrimp and pounds some more. I get mine without the whole live crabs and rotten fish parts (plala) though!

the recepie looks very tempting i m gng to try it out for sure

can u tell me where can i buy a mortar and a pestle?

Hi Judy,

We have made this salad many times but have never run across a bitter papaya (so never had to salt and squeeze). I think you must have had a bad papaya (similar to bitter cucumbers or bitter zucchini).