The most uniquely Burmese of all preparations — a salad of fermented tea leaves (laphet) combined with fried garlic, fried broad beans, fried peanuts, sesame seeds, dried shrimp, and fresh tomatoes, dressed with fish sauce, lime juice, and oil. Laphet is simultaneously a food and a stimulant — the tea leaves' caffeine provides a mild stimulating effect — and it is the central preparation of Burmese social and ceremonial life. No Burmese celebration is complete without laphet.
**The fermented tea leaves (laphet thoke):** Tea leaves (from the same Camellia sinensis plant as all tea) that are pressed, fermented for several months, and stored preserved in oil. The fermentation produces a completely different flavour from brewed tea — sour, slightly bitter, earthy, complex, with a distinctive caffeine content that distinguishes laphet from all other salad ingredients. Available from specialist Burmese and some Southeast Asian grocery stores. **The texture components:** The textural complexity of laphet thoke is its defining characteristic — the soft, sour tea leaves against the crunch of fried garlic, crispy broad beans, and peanuts, with the fresh tomato and dried shrimp providing flavour contrast. Each component is prepared separately and combined at service: - Fried garlic: Entry FD-48 principle — sliced thin and fried slowly in oil. - Fried broad beans: dried broad beans deep-fried at 175°C until crisp and pale gold. - Fried peanuts: Entry TH-33 principle. - Toasted sesame seeds. - Dried shrimp: small, whole. - Fresh tomato: finely diced. - Green chilli: sliced. **Assembly:** The laphet (tea leaves, squeezed from their oil) in the centre of a serving dish. The other components arranged around or in sections alongside. The diner combines at the table, mixing the tea leaves with the chosen components.
Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford, *Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia* (2000); Naomi Duguid, *Burma: Rivers of Flavor* (2012)