Salad · Fermented Tea Leaf
Lahpet Thoke
Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use
Myanmar is one of the only places on earth where tea is eaten as a salad rather than only brewed as a drink.
Fermented tea leaves are tossed with fried garlic, toasted sesame, crunchy split peas, peanuts, tomato, and chili, traditionally kept in separate piles so diners can mix their own combination. It's sold as a snack from street stalls and served as the closing course of home meals alike.
Why it's made this way: Fermenting tea leaves for eating rather than drinking is believed to have started in Myanmar's Shan State, a major tea-growing region, and a lahpet tray was historically exchanged as a peace offering between warring parties.
Roughly what's in it
280kcal
9gprotein
22gcarbs
18gfat
Estimated per typical street-vendor portion — not lab-tested.
More from Myanmar
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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