Experimenting in the kitchen: Thai papaya salad

Ever since I've returned from my summer trip, hardly a week goes by without me developing a craving for Thai food. The variety and abundance of cheap, quick food are now a fond memory, and so I decided to put my own spin today on one of my favorite Thai dishes.

Som Tam is a green shredded papaya salad, traditionally pounded in a mortar with various other herbs and spices. Can I create a similar dish? Let's try!

To start: a green papaya. Since it's mango season right now, I also
grabbed a slightly under-ripe mango to add to the salad.

Everything had to be cut into slivers. Unfortunately I don't have a
mandolin, so had to do all this by hand. 

To the papaya and mango, I added lime zest, along with a dressing
made with sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, vinegar, and chili sauce.
Traditionally, little tiny dried shrimp and peanuts would be added to the
salad too. I didn't have those, but threw in some cilantro and mint leaves,
which added a lovely aroma to the entire dish.

I let the veggies sit in the dressing a bit,
so the flavors would meld together. Then
I added some poached chicken to make
this a complete meal.

While not exactly what I had in Thailand, this is a really fresh and light salad. I can see myself making this a lot as the weather gets warmer!