Dudu xay, mamao com leche, susu esi.

In any language, it's the perfect beverage, for me anyway. I've had a papaya milkshake fetish for years. It doesn't matter where I am, in Cambodia, in Samoa, in Brazil, or even here, I'm always on the lookout for some combination of papaya, milk and ice.

In Samoa I had access to supercheap, unbelievably good papayas (I even had a tree growing from underneath my my house). When I picked up an excellent blender and started making them myself, I was in heaven.

If you lucky enough to live in a place where you have access to decent papayas and you have got yourself a blender, you can use my recipe, if you are so inclined. Here goes.

Get yourself a papaya a little larger than your fist. You want a papaya that smells a little sweet when you put your nose up to it. Some of the best are from Hawaii and have an orange flesh. If the flesh tone is more pinkish, like most of the ones from Mexico, don't bother with it. Your milkshake will be bland and you'll never appreciate the sublime nature of this particular beverage.

Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and carve out the flesh of the fruit and stick aside in a little bowl or something. You want to use about half as much ice as papaya. Throw the ice into the blender. Then pour milk, and you can choose whatever type of milk you like, my favorite being vanilla soy, so that it fills up to about 3/4 the level of the ice. You can always add more later. Toss in the papaya and start 'er up. The blender should struggle because you want this thing to be as thick as possible. Only add more milk if the blender is stuck and needs some lubrication.

That should be it. It's as simple as it is satisfying. Good luck and let me know how it goes.