In my Gorging Global column for Denver Magazine, I bestowed beaucoup flowers & hearts on The Red Claw, the city’s lone Vietnamese-Cajun joint, for its killer curries & fish-sauced wings. Also among the menu’s many curiosities: papaya jerky salad. I had to try it: what, pray tell, was papaya jerky?

Nonexistent, as it turns out. The salad is composed of julienned fresh green papaya, excellent sweet-hot beef jerky (thit ko bo), chopped herbs, & little else—what appeared to be dressing was mostly just drainage. I was all for it—simple, refreshing, weird.

As always, the extent of the damage is directly proportional to the deliciousness of the storm.