I have been entranced by the green papaya salad called som tam ever since my first visit to Tiny Thai Restaurant, in fall 2004, shortly after it opened in what is now the Essex Experience.
The classic Thai street food hits all my culinary buttons; each bite delivers crunch, sourness, salt and funk in kaleidoscopic spades.
Eighteen and a half years and two restaurant locations ago, the salad cost $3.95. Today, it's a still-reasonable $6 and continues to delight with the same refreshingly punchy, bright combination of flavors and textures that I have called "addictive" in print several times.
Tiny Thai moved to its current Winooski home at 293 Main Street after 15 years in the center of town. When I went earlier this month, I tried to remain open-minded about which dish might earn the spotlight for our monthlong series of "forever faves" at enduring local restaurants.
Friends and I ordered several dishes to share, including the soothing, sweet coconut milk massaman curry ($15 with chicken) and the bracingly spicy pad krapow moo grob stir-fry with bacon-y chunks of pork belly, fried basil leaves and crisp green beans ($18). The latter dish appears on the "genuine" Thai menu that co-owner Paul Ciosek and his wife, Pui, who grew up just outside Bangkok, added more than a decade ago.
Those choices are good, as are the pad kee maow, also called drunken noodles ($14 to $16 depending on protein); and the nam tok waterfall beef ($16), grilled flank steak tossed with tomatoes, bell peppers, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar, then sprinkled with ground roasted rice and served with sticky rice.
But if I had to choose only one dish at Tiny Thai, who am I kidding?
Som tam wins hands down.
Som means sour, and tam is the act of pounding, which is key to the recipe, the Cioseks explained during a chat last week. Tiny Thai kitchen staff use a special vegetable peeler with a ridged blade to julienne long strips of green papaya. In a mortar, they bruise garlic and chiles, then tomato chunks and raw green beans, and, at the end, the papaya — just enough to get the juices going, Paul explained: "You don't want to turn it to mush." Finally, cooks add the dressing of lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar and shower the salad with peanuts.
Paul, who lived for several years in Bangkok after meeting Pui at the University of Colorado Boulder, loves cooking, but he mostly manages the front of the house while his wife stewards the kitchen. With their latest restaurant move, the Cioseks finally own their building, which has about 30 indoor seats and more outdoors during warm weather.
They are looking forward to celebrating Tiny Thai's 20th anniversary next year, although they said looking back makes them feel "old" (Pui) and "tired" (Paul). Despite that, Pui added, "We both still enjoy being here."
When they get away to Thailand, where Pui's elderly mother lives, Paul looks forward to eating som tam on the beach.
"Ladies come by with a mortar and pestle and a yoke over their shoulders holding all the ingredients," he described. "They make it right there and serve it with sticky rice." For a full meal, Paul said, he might buy charcoal-grilled chicken from another beach vendor.
New life goal: Eat som tam and grilled chicken on a beach in Thailand.
"One Dish" is a series that samples a single menu item — new, classic or fleeting — at a Vermont restaurant or other food venue. Know of a great plate we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.