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In the morning, the barbecue carnage begins with large, open-coal grills loaded
up with marinated chicken, sending up big plumes of smoke that waft across the
city as free advertising. Alongside the grill is a large mortar and pestle in which the
sôm·đam is prepared. In go strips of green papaya, sugar, chillies, fish sauce,
green beans, tomatoes, dried shrimps and a few special requests: peanuts to make
it sôm·đam Thai; or field crabs and Ъlah ráh (fermented fish sauce) to make it
sôm·đam Lao (referring to the ethnic Lao who live in northeastern Thailand).
The vendor pounds the ingredients together with the pestle to make a musical
'pow-pow-pow' sound that is sometimes used as an onomatopoetic nickname. Isan
girls are often told that they'll make good wives if they are adept at handling the
pestle when making sôm·đam - the obvious sexual connotations are intended.
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