Luang Prabang Papaya Salad

1. To make the papaya strips, use a vegetable peeler or cut the papaya into pieces and thinly slice each piece into strips resembling small, flat noodles. Place the strips in a bowl and set aside.
2. Make the dressing: Add the palm sugar to a deep mortar and pound until finely crushed. Add the garlic and chiles, then pound into a paste. Add the shrimp paste and black crab paste and mix well. Add the tamarind paste, fish sauce, padaek and MSG and mix until well combined.
3. Add the papaya strips to the mortar, followed by the tomatoes, salted crab and lime juice. Using the pestle in one hand and a large spoon in the other, gently pound and toss the ingredients together. Use the spoon to bring the ingredients from the bottom of the mortar to the top as you pound, making sure the papaya is evenly coated with the dressing without crushing it too much.
4. Serve the salad immediately with green cabbage and Lao Sticky Rice. You can tear a cabbage leaf and pick up some rice and salad with it.

Lao Sticky Rice:

1. Place the sticky rice in a large bowl and cover with room-temperature water. Gently agitate the rice with your hands to release its excess starch, which will turn the water cloudy. Carefully pour out most of the water, then repeat the rinsing process three more times, until the water is clear. Add enough water to the rinsed rice to submerge it by at least 2 inches. Soak the rice for at least 12 hours or overnight. (If you’re short on time, you can soak the rice for 1 hour in hot water instead of overnight; longer soaking results in fluffier rice, but be sure to soak it for at least an hour to prevent hard granules.)
2. To steam the rice, fill a Lao aluminum pot with at least 5 inches of water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Drain the soaked rice and transfer it into a traditional bamboo steamer (you can also use a regular steamer lined with cheesecloth). Give the rice a quick rinse in the steamer to ensure it settles evenly at the bottom. Position the steamer over the boiling pot and cover it with a lid. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes. Remove the steamer from the pot and gently flip the rice so the top layer moves to the bottom. Place the steamer back on the pot, cover and steam for another 15 minutes. Remove the steamer from the pot and transfer the hot sticky rice to a nonstick surface like a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Use a wooden spoon to gently break apart the rice, allowing steam to escape. Let it cool until it can be handled with your bare hands, then shape the rice back into a ball and place it in a bamboo basket (thip khao). Serve immediately or wrap the basket in a towel to keep the rice warm.