Lao tam som technique applied to green (unripe) jackfruit — the "mak mee" of the name. Young jackfruit is boiled until tender, shredded, then pounded with padaek, lime, chili and garlic (often with herbs and cherry tomato). Meaty and chewy rather than crisp, sour-spicy-funky; a tam-family pounded salad beyond papaya.
Rural Lao gardens, where jackfruit trees are common and the young green fruit is harvested before it sweetens. The same mortar-and-pestle tam technique used for papaya salad is applied to boiled unripe jackfruit, prized for its meaty, fibrous texture; eaten with sticky rice when green papaya is out of season or simply for variety. (Note: "mak mee" / ໝາກມີ້ is the Lao word for jackfruit, not yardlong bean — the yardlong-bean pounded salad is tam mak thua.)
Vientiane's Talat Sao morning-market mortar lady (corner stall, present since 1990s, run by Mae Boun) charges 8,000 kip a bowl and refuses to make it without padaek; tourists asking for fish-sauce-only get a refusal and a finger-point to the tourist stall next door.
Shredded boiled green jackfruit, bruised from pounding, glistening with padaek-lime dressing. Cherry tomato halves bleed pink into the bowl. Meaty and chewy rather than crisp — closer to pulled meat than papaya salad — with a garlic-and-chili punch and the deep funk of fermented fish underneath.
Boil the young jackfruit until it shreds easily — roughly an hour — to kill the raw astringency and develop its meaty, fibrous chew; this step can't be rushed. Shred, then pound only enough to drive the padaek and lime into the strands, not to mash them. Cherry tomato is added last and pounded just a few times so it bleeds without disintegrating. Padaek is the dish's umami backbone.
Variations
Tam som mak mee (green jackfruit, eaten with sticky rice) sits in the broader tam som family alongside tam som mak thua (yardlong bean), tam som mak khuea (eggplant, monsoon variant) and tam som mak nguea (cucumber, hot-season cooler). A Hmong-style version adds dried river fish for extra funk.
On the Palate
Where Tam Som Mak Mee sits in the Lao flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2
How it's made
2 steps · 12 min
- 110 min
Same technique as tam som but with long beans instead of papaya — pound with 4 garlic + 4 chilies + padaek + lime + cherry tomato.
Watch outBoil the young jackfruit a full hour until it shreds easily — this drives off the raw astringency and builds the meaty chew, and it can't be rushed; then pound just enough to work the padaek and lime in, and tap the tomatoes only a few times so they bleed without turning to mush.
- 22 min
Serve immediately with sticky rice.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
