09/05/17
Bangkok House in Myrtle Beach, SC is my home away from home. This is the only place I can truly say caters to me when I'm craving (almost always) a meal that is as close as it can be to mom's home cooking. The one dish I ALWAYS get is the Papaya Salad (med-hot spice level) with a side of sticky rice and chicken wings. When ordering this dish, you can have it made the Thai or Laos version. My preference is the Laos version since it is closer in flavor intensity to my native Cambodia. This "salad" isn't your typical lettuce and greens. It combines freshly chopped/grated green papaya with garlic, fish sauce, fermented shrimp paste, lime juice, birds eye chili peppers, sugar and cheery tomatoes served on a bed of cabbage. Green papaya by itself has no real flavor so it's crunchy texture similar to a green apple is the perfect vehicle to absorb and carry all the surrounding ingredients. When you first bite into this dish, you get the fresh crisp from the green papaya followed by the salty and sour from the shrimp paste, fish sauce and lime juice. Your mouth starts to water a bit before you feel the heat from the chili peppers. And in most Southeast Asian countries, the spicer the dish, the better. After you're eyes and pores are opened from the peppers, you taste the tart sweatiness from the cheery tomatoes and sugar. But what separates this Laos style dish from the Thai version is the inclusion of the fermented shrimp paste. The paste gives the salad it's darker juice color and pungent fishy aroma. Some people may be turned off by the strong, fermented fish aroma, but when combined with all the ingredients, this paste is the binding key that makes you question why you can't put down your chopsticks even though your head is sweating, eyes are red and you've run out of water. If things get a little too hot, grab and eat a piece of sticky rice and use it to help calm down all the flavor experiences you're feeling. Be sure to check out Bangkok House in Myrtle Beach. You'll probably see me in there eating this dish with extra napkins. Until the next BTB ✌🏽