Tea Leaf Salad

Home to the Shan and Palaung people, the hills of northern Myanmar are also home to a unique and delicious salad that was once served as a symbolic peace offering to be exchanged and consumed after settling a dispute between warring kingdoms.
Etienne Bossot

This dish is so special and unique that it deserves a story all of its own. Let me introduce you to the delicious Burmese Tea Leaf Salad.

Known locally as Lahpet Thoke (pronounced “la-pay toe”) I discovered this amazing dish last year while traveling in the north of the Shan State. Lahpet means “green tea”, and thoke means “salad” and in this region it is a much-loved specialty that represents an important cultural tradition. However, as soon as you leave the Shan State, it becomes quite difficult to find, and when you do, it tastes very different.

Today the salad is typically served as a final course at the end of a meal, but historically Lahpet Thoke was a symbolic peace offering exchanged and consumed after settling a dispute between warring kingdoms.

The hills in these northern states are home to the Shan and Palaung people, and especially around the town of Kyaukme, the landscape itself seems as if woven from the many tea plantations that cover its slopes. Unlike the more regimented, straight-line kind of plantation, these trees have been planted over time and are dotted in a more haphazard way all over the mountain.

Picking the tea leaves usually begins in March, after the cold winter months. The first pick of the year is supposed to yield the best leaves, and the season ends again in November when the temperatures drop.

Men, women and children from every village leave in the early morning, and spend their days in the tea fields, only returning to their homes at dusk when their baskets are filled.

Lahpet Thoke is so important to the local culture that when tea leaves are harvested, the best of the crop is set aside for fermenting to prepare the leaves for the salad.

The rest of the tea leaves are then processed and dried for drinking tea — in the sun for green tea, and in an oven for black tea — but preparing the leaves for Lahpet Thoke is a completely different process.

First, the freshly harvested tea leaves are steamed for about five minutes, not boiled, just gently steamed to make them wet and soft. The leaves are then put into a rotating machine that will roll them into small balls. Once this is done, the leaves are smaller and easier to handle and store. The leaves will now be spread out on huge tables to dry, and those that don’t look as appetising will be discarded.

During the last phase the leaves are packed into bamboo vats and today are surrounded by plastic covers that isolate them from the air. Completely sealed, these vats are then placed into pits, and pressed by heavy weights to encourage fermentation.

They will remain like this for between three months and a whole year, and leaving the leaves to ferment for so long will allow the bitterness to seep out of the leaves. Have you ever tried picking and eating a tea leaf directly from a tree? It does taste like tea but it is very bitter...

Prepared using these fermented leaves, the final salad is an eclectic mix of flavors and textures that includes soft, pickled tea leaves, crisp, roasted peanuts and other crunchy beans, toasted sesame seeds, ginger, oil, and a lot of fried garlic — and I mean a lot of garlic. It is often also served with dried shrimp and chopped tomatoes.

Traditionally lahpet thoke is served with all the ingredients in separate piles, so that guests can then pick out a combination of their own preference each time they grab a handful.

The final dish tastes delicious and fresh — even though the leaves have fermented for so long — and it is a real pleasure to eat at any time of the day!