Recently, a British woman who has been living in Burma came to stay with us. She brought us some gifts from Burma; among them were two packages of lahpet mix. The ingredients and instructions were written in Burmese, but she explained that we were to soak the contents in water and then mix them all together. I was surprised to learn that the mysterious packages were for a pickled tea salad.
Tea is native to Burma, where it is drunk as well as eaten. The leaves are picked in the spring when they are young and fresh. They are then steamed and stored in bamboo vats where they are allowed to ferment, thus giving them the "pickled" state.
Lahpet is considered one of the national dishes of Burma and is a pickled tea salad mixes with ingredients such as crisp fried garlic, peas, peanuts, fresh tomatoes, fish sauce, toasted sesame, crushed dried shrimp, preserved shredded ginger and/or fried shredded coconut. Almost every Burmese meal, whether a simple one or a meal served at a special occasion, has lahpet.
Lahpet is served in one of two ways: