Burmese salads facts for kids
A serving of laphet thoke (pickled tea leaf salad) before mixing.
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| Course | Snack, Entree, Side dish |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Myanmar |
| Associated national cuisine | Burmese cuisine |
| Serving temperature | Cold or room temperature |
| Main ingredients | Various |
| Similar dishes | Thai salads, Vietnamese salads |
Burmese salads are a special type of salads from Burmese cuisine. In Myanmar, these salads are called athoke (အသုပ်). They are made by hand-mixing different cooked and raw ingredients. This mixing helps to create a perfect balance of flavors and textures.
People in Myanmar enjoy athoke in many ways. They can be a quick snack, a side dish with curries, or even a main meal. One very famous salad is laphet thoke, which is made with pickled tea leaves. It's often eaten at the end of a meal to cleanse your taste buds.
Contents
What Goes Into Burmese Salads?
Burmese salads usually focus on one main ingredient. This can be anything from starchy foods like rice and noodles to cooked items like Burmese fritters or different kinds of protein. They also use fresh fruits and vegetables.
Common starchy ingredients include rice, egg noodles, and potatoes. Many salads also feature fresh veggies and fruits. Think of tomatoes, cabbage, onions, kaffir lime, and mangoes. Some salads even use special fermented ingredients. These include lahpet (pickled tea leaves) and ngapi (fish paste).
To make the salads tasty, different seasonings are added. These include chili oil, garlic oil, and sesame oil. Other flavors come from toasted chickpea flour, lime juice, fish sauce, and tamarind paste. Peanuts and fried garlic add a nice crunch. Finally, fresh herbs like coriander, mint, and green onions are used to make the salads smell and look great. Everything is mixed well by hand!
Types of Burmese Salads
In Burmese, the word for "to mix by hand" is "-thoke" (သုပ်). So, almost all Burmese salads have "-thoke" at the end of their name. The name usually tells you the main ingredient of the salad. Here are some popular Burmese salads:
Salads with Fermented Foods
- Gyin thoke (ဂျင်းသုပ်): A salad made with shredded pickled ginger. It has sesame seeds and different fried beans.
- Laphet thoke (လက်ဖက်သုပ်): This famous salad uses pickled tea leaves. It's mixed with fried chickpeas, peanuts, garlic, and fresh tomatoes.
- Ngapi thoke (ငါးပိသုပ်): A salad made from ngapi, which is a fermented fish paste.
- Pon ye gyi thoke (ပုန်းရည်ကြီးသုပ်): This salad from Upper Myanmar uses pon ye gyi (fermented bean paste). It also has raw onions and dried shrimp.
- Hsei be u thoke (ဆေးဘဲဥသုပ်): A salad made with century eggs, raw shallots, and shredded cabbage.
Salads with Vegetables and Herbs
- Gazun ywet thoke (ကန်စွန်းရွက်သုပ်): Made with blanched water spinach, lime juice, and fried garlic.
- Khayanchin thi thoke (ခရမ်းချဉ်သီးသုပ်): A simple salad with raw tomatoes, shallots, and dried shrimp powder.
- Khayan thi miphok thoke (ခရမ်းသီးမီးဖုတ်သုပ်): This salad uses fire-roasted eggplant, shallots, and ngapi.
- Myinkhwa ywet thoke (မြင်းခွာရွက်သုပ်): An herbal salad with pennywort leaves, lime juice, and fish sauce.
- Pethi thoke (ပဲသီးသုပ်): A salad of blanched and chopped green beans with fried onions.
Salads with Fruits
- Shauk thi thoke (ရှောက်သီးသုပ်): Made with sliced lemon or kaffir lime, chickpea flour, and crushed roasted peanuts.
- Kywegaw thi thoke (ကျွဲကောသီးသုပ်): A salad featuring pomelo and shallots, seasoned with dried shrimp powder.
- Thayet thi thoke (သရက်သီးသုပ်): A salad of shredded green mangoes, mixed with dried shrimp, onions, and garlic.
- Thayet chin thoke (သရက်ချဉ်သုပ်): A fermented green mango salad with onions, chili, and roasted peanuts.
- Thinbaw thi thoke (သင်္ဘောသီးသုပ်): A salad of shredded green papaya, mixed with dried shrimp and fried garlic.
Salads with Seafood and Meat
- Bazun thoke (ပုဇွန်သုပ်): A pickled prawn salad.
- Kyettha thoke (ကြက်သားသုပ်): A salad of shredded chicken, tomatoes, and shallots.
- Kyetchidauk thoke (ကြက်ခြေထောက်သုပ်): A sour and spicy salad made with chicken feet.
- Pyigyi nga thoke (ပြည်ကြီးငါးသုပ်): A salad made with cooked squid.
Salads with Rice and Noodles
- Htamin thoke (ထမင်းသုပ်): A rice salad with tomato puree, potato, and glass noodles.
- Khauk swè thoke (ခေါက်ဆွဲသုပ်): A wheat noodle salad with dried shrimps, shredded cabbage, and carrots.
- Kya zan thoke (ကြာဆံသုပ်): A glass vermicelli salad with boiled prawns and mashed curried duck eggs.
- Nan gyi thoke (နန်းကြီးသုပ်): A thick rice noodle salad with chickpea flour, chicken, and fish cake.
- Nanbyagyi thoke (နန်းပြားကြီးသုပ်): Similar to Nan gyi thoke but with flat rice noodles.
Other Salads
- Samuza thoke (စမူဆာသုပ်): A salad made from cut samosa pieces with onions, cabbage, and a light potato curry broth.
- Tophu thoke (တို့ဟူးသုပ်): A salad of fresh Burmese tofu slices, seasoned with peanut oil, soy sauce, and garlic.
Burmese Salads Around the World
Cambodia
Mee kola is a Cambodian noodle dish that came from the Kola people. These people originally moved from Myanmar to Cambodia. This noodle salad has steamed rice vermicelli cooked with soy sauce and garlic chives. It's served with pickled vegetables, hardboiled eggs, and sweet garlic fish sauce. It's a popular street food in Cambodia today.
India
After a big event in Myanmar in 1962, many people of Burmese Indian heritage moved back to India. A lot of these refugees settled in the city of Chennai. There, they started selling a dish called atho (அத்தோ) on the streets. Atho is a version of the Burmese noodle salad khauk swe thoke. It's a mix of noodles, shredded cabbage, and onions. It's flavored with tamarind, salt, fried onions, and chili flakes.
