The only food item of note involves our lunch today at Tuk Tuk Thai Cafe (2466 Shattuck, Berkeley).  I have enjoyed their lunch special for some time now and almost always order the BBQ chicken with sticky rice and green papaya salad.  Transliterated, that’s gai yang and som tum.  Fact is, Tuk Tuk produces superior som tum.  Being a student and lover of Issan-style cooking, I know my som tum, and this is tops.  The papaya is grated coarse so it retains its texture, and all the ingredients meld into that sweet-sour-hot-pungent flavor profile that is the hallmark of Issan cuisine.  The grated papaya and condiments are pounded together in a wooden mortar, you see, which brings the salad together.  Traditionally, dried shrimp, lime juice, fish sauce, dried chili pepper, tomatoes, palm sugar, green beans and sugar are used.  If you want to try to make it there are about a zillion recipes on the web, but try to find one that uses the ingredients I list.  Until I got the Thai mortar and pestle, I had some luck using big wooden spoons to smash the mass into the bottom of a large stoneware bowl.  Now, if only I could get Matthew to stop ordering lunch special #1, the chow mein.  No matter how I try to steer him, he is a stick of furniture.