Green papaya salad (, , , , and ) is a spicy salad made from shredded unripe papaya. It was created by the Lao people and is a popular national dish of Laos. It also has become popular in Thailand and rest of the continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam), as well as Xishuangbanna (from China). Som tam, the Thai version of green papaya salad, was included on CNN on their list of the World's 50 most delicious foods. History Papaya and chili peppers were introduced to Southeast Asia by the Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 17th century from the Americas. Simon de la Loubère (1642-1729), a French diplomat, mentioned in his book that the cultivation of papaya was already widespread in Siam in 1693. Although it is unknown when papayas entered Laos specifically, they had already been integrated into Lao culture by the time of Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix's visit in 1836. Papaya among other fruit were cultivated in Cambodia by Chinese settlers who immigrated from Hainan, China, in the 1500s. The Lao name for papaya is mak hung and was likely derived from l'hun or lohung/rohung as papayas are called by Cambodians and Cambodian indigenous people living in provinces bordering the Southeastern region of Laos. The exact origins of som tam are unclear, but it is believed to have evolved from a dish called "Pu Tam" (, ) mentioned in a recipe by gourmet chef Plien Passakornwong in her 1908 cookbook. This dish shares similarities with modern-day som tam but does not include papaya as an ingredient. The earliest known recipe for som tam in Thailand appeared in the Yaowapha cookbook series by Phra Chao Boromawong in 1935, which included "Som tam ton malakor" () or "Khao man som tam" (). This recipe is similar to the som tam we know today and includes roasted peanuts and dried shrimp as key ingredients. It is often served with rice cooked in coconut milk. Thai historian Sujit Wongthes has speculated that the green papaya salad originated in the communities of ethnic Chinese–Lao settlers living in what is now Central Thailand, who adopted the ancient Lao tradition of preparing salads from fruits, called tam som, to make salads from papayas. The new dish became known as som tam (the reversed order of tam som) during the early Rattanakosin period (late 18th to early 19th centuries) and, along with the papaya, then