Beef Papaya Salad

Devlin fell in love with beef papaya salad during our stay in Hoi An, Vietnam. Lynnea found a small restaurant, that had just opened, which was tucked down a side street at the edge of the tourist district. The first evening we ate there, I ordered the beef papaya salad... Devlin tried it, and promptly ordered one more.

It was love at first bite. He went back, every day, to have at least two orders of the salad.

And truly, that little restaurant's salad was top notch. We tried the salad other places, and we even learned to make a version of it in our Thai cooking class, but that place in Hoi An was still the best.

The salad is mainly finely shredded papaya, mixed with rice vinegar, sugar, lime, garlic, and other spices. The beef adds a lovely meaty flavor (our favorite over the chicken and shrimp versions of the same salad) - and I swear, the salad came out slightly warm - perhaps they tossed the hot beef with the salad at the last moment to produce that effect.

In any case, it was fantastic, and we'll be attempting to replicate that one for years to come.