Burmese · salad

Lahpet Thoke (Fermented Tea Leaf Salad)

Lahpet Thoke (Fermented Tea Leaf Salad) reads umami 5.7, funk & ferment 5.4 and sourness 5.2 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Burmese salad, about 36 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 7.2 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 2.2 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 6.7 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 2.0 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 5.1 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 4.3 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 5.7 · Funk & Ferment 5.4 · Sourness 5.2 · Citrus 5.1 · Salinity 5.0 · Marine & Briny 4.6 · Nutty 4.2 · Allium 3.9 · Heat 3.6 · Richness 2.9 · Fruity 1.7 · Earthy 1.7 · Bitterness 1.7 · Sweetness 1.6 · Herbaceous 1.0 · Warm Spice 0.9

What's in it (13)

• pickled tea leaves — 120 g
• peanut oil — 55 g
• garlic — 40 g
• dried broad beans — 60 g
• dried yellow split peas — 60 g
• peanuts — 60 g
• white sesame seeds — 30 g
• shrimp — 20 g
• white cabbage — 200 g
• tomatoes — 200 g
• green bird chillies — 200 g
• lime juice — 30 g
• fish sauce — 15 g

Time & effort: about 36 min · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 64.3 kcal, 2.7 g protein, 3.9 g fat, 5.2 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

1. Taste the tea leaves first. Good lahpet is sour, faintly bitter and slightly astringent, like a strong brewed tea with a lactic edge; if yours is aggressively salty, rinse it briefly and squeeze it out. There is no substitute for pickled tea leaf, and green tea leaves will not work, because the sourness comes from a real lactic fermentation of steamed young leaves packed under weight.
2. Heat the peanut oil in a small pan over medium-low heat and fry the sliced garlic for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until it turns pale straw. Lift it out with a slotted spoon the moment it colours, because it will keep browning off the heat and burnt garlic makes the whole salad bitter. Keep both the garlic and the oil.
3. In the same oil, fry the drained broad beans for 6 to 8 minutes until crisp and blistered, then lift them out. Fry the split peas for 4 to 5 minutes until they float and rattle, then the peanuts for about 4 minutes until the skins darken and split. Drain each on kitchen paper and salt them lightly while hot.
4. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, shaking constantly, until they smell nutty and a few begin to pop. Toast the dried shrimp in the same pan for 1 minute to wake them up.
5. Pile the shredded cabbage on a wide platter, mound the tea leaves in the middle, and arrange the fried beans, split peas, peanuts, sesame, dried shrimp, tomato, chilli and fried garlic in separate heaps around the edge. Burmese cooks serve it exactly like this so each eater sees what they are getting.
6. At the table pour over the lime juice, fish sauce and 2 tbsp of the reserved garlic oil, and toss everything hard with your hands for 30 seconds so the tea leaf coats every shred. Eat immediately, while the fried beans still crunch. Lahpet carries real caffeine, so it is eaten as a stimulant snack as much as a salad.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Chicken Pad Thai — Thai
• Yassa Poulet (Chicken in Lime and Onion Sauce) — Senegalese
• Grilled Thai Coconut Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce — Thai
• Pad Thai — Thai
• Thai Peanut Pork Lettuce Wraps — Thai

Keep reading: what umami, funk & ferment, sourness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.