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Beware when you buy pre-shredded green papaya at an Asian market. You need to use it fast for green papaya salad (goi du du) or it will get slimy and soggy. Here's how to get around the problem and keep the papaya perky:

Question:

Hi Andrea,

My family and friends enjoy your website a lot. We found the info that you posted are very accurate and very useful.

This weekend, we bought a lot of raw, shredded papaya (sample photo on the right) but we could not use it all. We kept the rest in the fridge but the next day, it came out soggy. I thought of you and wonder if you can give me some advices?

Thanks,

Tuyet
Washington, D.C.

My answer:

Hi Tuyet,

Thanks for visiting and enjoying the site. It's a major compliment coming from a fellow Viet person!

Okay, what you ought to do with the papaya is toss it with a bit of salt and sugar. It'll probably weep more liquid. Then WRING it out in a non-terry dish towel. It'll be dryish and can be stored for a couple days.

That's how I prep papaya for goi du du. Let it weep and wring it out. It's a traditional Viet method that's unfortunately not practiced often enough these days. The point is that once you apply the dressing (nuoc mam, lime, ect.), the papaya will suck it up like a dry sponge and be full of flavor!

Since your papaya is already slimier than when you wrote to me (it's kinda gross but that's papayain enzyme is good for your skin as an exfoliant, I believe), try just wringing it out. Also, buy a whole papaya (pictured to the right) and then you can prepare goi du du whenever. Peel, trim the seeds, and then run sections of it through the feel tube of a food processor to grate it into pieces the size of mozarella cheese that you'd use on pizza. Then sprinkle on the salt and sugar, massage it in, rinse the papaya, and finally wring out the excess liquid. Fluff before tossing with the remaining ingredients.

Hope I'm of help,

Andrea

Note to readers:

In case your'e not familiar with what Viet green papaya salad is, it's simply crunch shreds of green papaya tossed with chopped fresh herbs, poached shrimp (hand tear them apart so they mix in well) or strips of beef jerky, and a head lime-fish sauce-chile-garlic dressing. Pair Thai basil with the jerky and Vietnamese coriander (rau ram) with the shrimp. Here is a photo of jerky version of the salad: