Papaya salad on a rainy day

On stormy days, my mother would tell me to go to the backyard and pick some papayas. The ripe ones were eaten as fruit. The oversized ones were cooked in soup with meat and bones.

As for the green fruit with latex, my mother would shred it into long strips to make salad, and eat it with grilled sesame rice paper. After working in the garden for a while, it was enough to make a decent meal for the family without having to carry a basket to the market.

Papaya used for salad must be green. If it is slightly brown but not soft, it is still usable because it still retains the necessary crunchiness.
Mom used a double-edged knife to shred the papaya, so each strand was even and of moderate thickness. This made the salad absorb the seasoning easily and also made the food look beautiful when presented.

The papaya fibers need to be washed with coarse salt to reduce the sap, then soaked in ice water to keep them crispy. After being squeezed dry, the papaya will be mixed with crushed roasted peanuts, fried onions, fish sauce, chili, garlic, lemon, and Vietnamese coriander.

More luxurious families add savory ingredients, such as boiled shrimp, pork skin, shredded chicken, or beef jerky. Some families pound the dish with a pestle, similar to the Thai salad (Sontam), so that the papaya strands absorb the spices.

Mom has a habit of wearing gloves, then squeezing the salad to let it absorb the seasoning. Mom said, the salad noodles squeezed by hand will gradually absorb the seasoning, more flavorful than mixing with chopsticks. After mixing the salad, Mom usually covers it for about 30 minutes to let it absorb the seasoning before serving it on a plate.

Papaya salad does not have a complicated recipe, but the focus is on the flavor. It blends ingredients and spices that complement and complement each other.
Green papaya has a cooling (yin) property, mixed with hot (yang) ingredients such as garlic and chili, it neutralizes the hot and cold properties in the body. The saltiness of the fish sauce is also reduced somewhat thanks to the acid in the lemon.

The salad noodles are cooling, and eating them with grilled rice paper or hot rice is a clever combination. On sunny days, the sour papaya salad helps cool down and make you sweat. On rainy days, the spicy papaya salad with red chili helps warm the body and expel cold air.

The papaya salad my mother made on the days she “hid” from the market, carried the rich flavors of her childhood. During the off-season, it was a snack on the drinking tables of her elders. During storms or crop failures, it was the main dish on the family dinner table. It didn’t look complicated, but each person made it with their own flavor.

Sometimes the same person, but at different times, also creates different flavors. My mother is always a chef full of qualitative in cooking. On days when she is happy, papaya salad also has a sweet taste. For example, on days when she is coughing with my father, the salad is definitely spicy with the smell of chili pepper. That is to say, each dish carries a little of the cook's feelings.

In October in the Central region, the rainy and stormy season is coming. I looked out into the back garden and saw that the papayas were ready to be picked. My mother's papaya salad was about to be served hot on the dinner table...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/goi-du-du-ngay-mua-3143356.html