Around the world, I have eaten many kinds of delicious food. As I grew up in Thailand, however, Som Tum is my favorite food. Its name, “ Som,” means papaya and “ Tum” means crushing. With my family, I eat Som Tum as a salad with pork satay, which is a skewer with meat. Additionally, sticky rice, a Thai specialty, is cooked and served in bamboo. Each ingredient is common, but fresh and natural -nothing is bought processed. Som Tum is valuable as a Thai traditional food passed from generation to generation, because of its simplicity and its richness in nutrition.
Som Tum is valuable, because of its simplicity. It is golden brown with a pink tinge, served warm, with unripe green papaya. It is the combination of many common ingredients: peanuts, tamarind sauce, fish sauce, tomatoes, dried and small shrimp, garlic, lime, green beans, coconut sugar, and green and red very spicy chili. All ingredients are easily crushed in a mortar with a pestle to make a thick paste of Som Tum. Som Tum is rich in nutrition, full of carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins, which the body’s systems can use to maintain their functions.
Carbohydrates from tomatoes, green beans, natural coconut sugar, papaya, and sticky rice are used as primary sources of energy for the body. Another energy source is proteins from peanuts, pork, and dried shrimp. Moreover, some of the ingredients are rich in vitamins. For example, the tomatoes’ Vitamin A improves eye-sight. Beside Vitamin A, iron in tomatoes is essential as the central part of blood cells in the body. Also, the fish sauce provides Iodine, which prevents people from the enlargement of thyroid glands.
Because of its combination of such healthy ingredients, Som Tum is a balanced diet. Som Tum is so valuable that it is a family favourtie -all of us can prepare it. So, when I think about Thailand, my mouth remembers Som Tum. At first in Canada, I was so homesick that I used to paint pictures of Som Tum. Also, my guardian in Canada owns a Thai restaurant, and I can go there and imagine myself with my family, eating Som Tum.
