som tum pbooh aka salted crab green papaya salad

[Janeinma]

Recently tried the salted crab version of som tum when down in New York (Woodside) for a trip.
I totally fell in love with this dish, does anyone know if any restaurants in Boston or north of Boston do this?
any pointers would be appreciated (including thai/laotian/ethnic supermarkets).

[qianning]

1) You might want to look at this thread. EATTV just did a wonderful write up of this dish at S&I To Go. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787402

2) Phien's Kitchen in Lowell makes a fantastic Lao-style papaya salad, but with home-made fish sauce, not crunchy crab.

3) Lot's of threads around on grocers, but over all your best bets are in Lowell and Revere for Cambodian/Lao/Viet Namese/Thai ingredients. And depending on how far north you are, theres a great little Thai grocery, Lanna Asian Market, in Nashua, NH.

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S&I To Go
168A Brighton Ave, Allston, MA 02134

Phien's Kitchen
586 Westford St, Lowell, MA 01851

[Janeinma]

actually he mentions 'the juices of tiny crabs' not having crab, I have had their som tum and it wasnt the crab version. We searched h mart for it and will try Lowell for it but I was wondering if it was hidden in say Montien's secret thai menu.

[Luther]

S&I does indeed serve som tum with crab. If you ask for "with everything" it usually includes crab. I don't like crunching through shell so I always get it "with everything, no crab" now.

[Janeinma]

I have never seen this secret handshake of som tum with crab being provided when you ask for the salad with everything, I will try to see if this is true. We didint have to crunch through shell in the dish we tried as they we large distinct pieces which were easy to grab and suck the crab from.

[Luther]

Maybe it's who's waiting on you- I think the only time "everything" had crab it was way back when the old(er) lady was still running things and taking orders. I guess you might have to ask for it now. It was like 1-2 cm pieces, not large but not too small to pick out.

[galangatron]

ask for it with crab

[cambridgedoctpr]

i had a great papaya salad at Rod Dee; perhaps they can add crab?

[EATTV]

The som tum Thai/puu at Sripraphai in Woodside is a great one. Better still at their smaller Long Island branch near Great Neck. S&I in Allston makes a great version and I encourage them to turn up the heat. The dish is famously from Isaan in northeast Thailand and I know a place in Udonthani that makes 13 kinds including one with rice noodles. The small crabs are fun to work on but the dish comes together in a big wooden narrow mortar and it's there that all the elements blend their sum tammy essences.

[galangatron]

you can definitely get som tum pu at s&i thai in allston

you can also get bok l'hong (green papaya salad) with kdam prei (salted black crab) at most cambodian restaurants. make sure you ask for the crab when you order it

[galangatron]

any se asian market should have salted black crabs