Thai papaya salad is one of the most popular Thai food dishes and is called 'somtam' in the Thai language. There are a few variations in the Thai papaya salad prepared in Thailand and we will be including the most popular varieties of this salad on our website. As the name would suggest, papaya is one of the main ingredients of the Thai papaya salad. The best papaya salad would be made with, fresh green papayas that are firm with a polished glossy look on the skin. The skin is used to select the ideal papayas for making the salad, but the skin itself does not go into the green papaya salad as it is taken off during the making process.