Burmese. Starter. Served at I Still Call It Burma (#2 and #3).

Laphet thoke

Tea leaf salad

Laphet thoke is fermented tea leaves with everything crunchy piled around them. I started from the Burma Superstar recipe but pulled back on the greens, because I wanted it to taste like tea leaf and not like a cabbage salad.

Fried garlic, yellow split peas, toasted nuts, and seeds give the salad its crunch. Toss with citrus just before serving.

Makes
Serves 10–12 as a starter, on two platters
Do ahead
All the fried and toasted things, up to 3 days

Ingredients

Scale

Fried garlic chips

  • 1 headgarlic (~12 cloves), thinly sliced
  • ½ cupneutral oil

Fried yellow split peas

  • ¾ cupdried yellow split peas
  • neutral oil, for frying
  • salt

Toasts

  • ¾ cupraw peanuts
  • ¾ cupsunflower seeds
  • 3 tbspsesame seeds

Shrimp powder

  • ¼ cupdried shrimp

Assembly

  • about 3 cupscabbage, thinly sliced
  • ~¾ cup per platterfermented tea leaf dressing (lahpet)
  • Roma tomatoes, diced
  • jalapeños, diced
  • fish sauce
  • lemon or lime wedges

Method

  1. Fry the garlic chips: heat the ½ cup neutral oil over medium-low, add the sliced garlic, and fry, stirring, until evenly golden, 5–7 minutes. Strain immediately, because they keep crisping. Save the garlic oil. Store airtight at room temperature.
  2. Fry the split peas: soak the yellow split peas 2 hours. Drain and pat very dry. Fry at 325°F in batches until golden and crunchy, 3–4 minutes. Salt. Store airtight.
  3. Toast the peanuts at 350°F for 8–10 minutes. Cool, then chop coarse.
  4. Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry pan, 3–4 minutes. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan, 2–3 minutes.
  5. Make the shrimp powder: toast the dried shrimp 2 minutes, then grind. Store airtight.
  6. When you're ready to eat, thinly slice about 3 cups cabbage and split it across 2 large platters.
  7. Spoon the tea leaf dressing into the center of each platter, about ¾ cup each.
  8. Around the dressing, make separate piles: garlic chips, split peas, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame, diced Roma tomatoes, diced jalapeños.
  9. Dust shrimp powder over everything. Drizzle fish sauce.
  10. Put lemon or lime wedges on the side.
  11. Squeeze over the citrus and toss just before serving.

Notes

  • Go light on the cabbage so the tea leaf comes through.
  • This assumes you already have fermented tea leaf dressing (lahpet).
  • Adapted from Burma Superstar, p. 154, with less green and more tea leaf.