Papaya Salad
Papaya salad is a traditional Lao dish which can easily be found for sale at road side stands and restaurants. The ingredients used to make Papaya salad include: Padek, Chili, garlic, tomatoes, egg plant, lemon, tamarin, sour fruits, ground nuts, small crabs. However, these days small raw crabs are not used every often because people are afraid of liver parasites.
Raw papaya can be also eaten, all though some cooks like to steam it with meat and fish. Ripe Papaya can be serve as a dessert or even more commonly, as a medicine to treat pains in the waists. Since Lao people are the original Pioneer of Papaya salad. It’s promotion for the visit Laos year should be organized. Foreign tourists should get to know its taste, if a festival for Papaya salad is organized in any village, funny stories about its taste and origins will be heard.