Burmese salads explained

Burmese salads
Course:Snack, Entree, Side dish
Country:Myanmar
National Cuisine:Burmese cuisine
Served:Cold or room temperature
Main Ingredient:Various
Similar Dish:Thai salads, Vietnamese salads
No Recipes:false

Burmese salads (; transliterated athoke or athouk) are a diverse category of indigenous salads in Burmese cuisine. Burmese salads are made of cooked and raw ingredients that are mixed by hand to combine and balance a wide-ranging array of flavors and textures.[1] Burmese salads are eaten as standalone snacks, as side dishes paired with Burmese curries, and as entrees.[2] The most common or popular, the iconic laphet thoke (fermented tea leaf salad) is traditionally eaten as a palate cleanser at the end of a meal.[3]

Ingredients

Burmese salads are typically centered on one major ingredient, ranging from rice, noodles and cooked ingredients (e.g., Burmese fritters), to raw fruits and vegetables. Common starches used in Burmese salads include rice, egg noodles, rice vermicelli, rice noodles, and potatoes. Burmese salads may also feature raw vegetables and fruits, such as tomatoes, cabbage, onions, kaffir lime, long beans, and mangoes. Fermented ingredients, including lahpet (pickled tea leaves), ngapi (fish paste), pon ye gyi (fermented bean paste), and pickled ginger, also feature prominently in several classic Burmese salads.[4]

The salad ingredients are dressed with various seasonings, including chili oil, garlic oil, and sesame oil, toasted chickpea flour, lime juice, fish sauce, tamarind paste, peanuts, and fried garlic, and then thoroughly mixed by hand. Aromatic fresh herbs like coriander, mint, lime leaves, and green onions are also used to garnish Burmese salads.

List of Burmese salads

While the repertoire of Burmese salads has not been codified, Burmese salads are invariably suffixed with the word "-thoke" (သုပ်;) in the Burmese language. Burmese salads are typically named after the salad's central ingredient (e.g., pomelo, ginger, etc.). Common Burmese salads are listed below.

Fermented products

Vegetables and herbs

Fruits

Seafood and meat

Rice and noodles

Other

Regional adaptations

Mee kola

Mee kola (Central Khmer: មីកូឡា or Central Khmer: មីកុឡា), also known as Burmese-style noodles,[24] is a Cambodian noodle dish that originated among the Kola people in the Pailin Province, who originally descended from Burmese migrants to Cambodia's northwest.[25] The noodle salad consists of steamed rice vermicelli, cooked with soy sauce and garlic chives, and served with pickled vegetables (e.g., papaya, carrot, and cucumber), hard-boiled eggs, sweet garlic fish sauce, dried shrimp, and crushed peanuts, and garnished with lime and chili flakes.[26] [27] [28] The dish has become a popular street food in Cambodia.

India

Following the 1962 Burmese coup d'état, over 300,000 Burmese Indians returned to their ancestral homes in India.[29] Many refugees settled in the port city of Madras (now Chennai), where a community around Burma Bazaar in George Town formed.[30] Burmese Indian refugees there became street hawkers, selling a dish locally called atho (அத்தோ), which is an adaptation of khauk swe thoke, the Burmese noodle salad. Atho is a mixture of noodles, shredded cabbage and onions garnished with tamarind, salt, fried onions, chili flakes, garlic and ajinomoto seasoning.[31] [32]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: Duguid, Naomi. 2012-11-27. Random House of Canada. 978-0-307-36217-9. en.
  2. Book: Aye, MiMi. 2019-06-13. Bloomsbury Publishing. 978-1-4729-5948-5. en.
  3. Book: Robert. Claudia Saw Lwin. Pe. Win. Hutton. Wendy. 2014-02-04. Tuttle Publishing. 978-1-4629-1368-8. en.
  4. Web site: Gross. Matt. 2012-09-20. Burma Blossoms. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20130115141158/http://www.afar.com:80/magazine/burma-blossoms . 2013-01-15 . 2021-01-09. AFAR. en.
  5. Web site: Kyaw Lin Thant. 2016-05-04. "မဒေါက်" ငါးချဉ်. live. 2021-12-30. MyFood Myanmar. my. https://web.archive.org/web/20210129190909/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/ma-douk-fish-pickle/ . 2021-01-29 .
  6. Web site: ပုန်းရည်ကြီးသုပ်တစ်ပွဲ ဘယ်လို စီမံမလဲ. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210112052827/https://www.howtocook.com.mm/recipes/%E1%80%95%E1%80%AF%E1%80%94%E1%80%BA%E1%80%B8%E1%80%9B%E1%80%8A%E1%80%BA%E1%80%80%E1%80%BC%E1%80%AE%E1%80%B8%E1%80%9E%E1%80%AF%E1%80%95%E1%80%BA%E1%80%90%E1%80%85%E1%80%BA%E1%80%95%E1%80%BD%E1%80%B2-%E1%80%98%E1%80%9A%E1%80%BA%E1%80%9C%E1%80%AD%E1%80%AF-%E1%80%85%E1%80%AE%E1%80%99%E1%80%B6%E1%80%99%E1%80%9C%E1%80%B2.html . 2021-01-12 . How to Cook. my.
  7. Web site: ဆေးဘဲဥသုပ်. 2021-01-09. Yangon Life. my. 2021-01-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20210111104618/https://yangonlife.com.mm/mm/article/19073. dead.
  8. Web site: 2014-01-29 . အာလူး၊ငါးကက်သလိတ်ကြော်နှင့် ကန်စွန်းရွက်သုပ် . 2022-07-22 . The Myanmar Times.
  9. Web site: ခရမ်းချဉ်သီးသုပ်. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20130725054414/http://www.wutyeefoodhouse.com:80/?p=5708 . 2013-07-25 . 2021-01-09. Wutyee Food House. my.
  10. Web site: 2017-02-01. ဗေဒါရီရဲ့ ဟင်းလျာ (ခရမ်းသီးမီးဖုတ်သုပ်). live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210111090231/https://myanmar.mmtimes.com/timeout/tea-break/24335-2017-02-01-08-01-38.html . 2021-01-11 . 2021-01-09. The Myanmar Times. my.
  11. Web site: ရခိုင်ကျောက်ပွင့်သုပ်. 2021-01-09. Yangon Life. my. 2021-01-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20210111093450/https://yangonlife.com.mm/mm/article/15419. dead.
  12. Book: Richmond. Simon. Myanmar (Burma). Eimer. David. Karlin. Adam. Louis. Regis St. Ray. Nick. 2017. Lonely Planet. 978-1-78657-546-3. en.
  13. Web site: ရာသီစာ အညာမန်ကျည်းရွက်သုပ် . 2022-07-22 . MDN - Myanmar DigitalNews . my.
  14. Book: Gill, Mohana. 2013-12-15. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. 978-981-4561-71-6. en.
  15. Web site: A selection of classic Burmese dishes. 2021-01-09. Travelfish. en.
  16. Web site: 2016-07-06. တမာရွက် ချဉ်စပ်သုပ်. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20181021145909/http://myfoodmyanmar.com:80/bitter-leaf-salad/ . 2018-10-21 . 2021-01-09. MyFood Myanmar. my.
  17. Web site: မရမ်းသီးသုပ်နည်း. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210111105846/https://www.hmwefoodproducts.com/product/%E1%80%99%E1%80%9B%E1%80%99%E1%80%BA%E1%80%B8%E1%80%9E%E1%80%AE%E1%80%B8%E1%80%9E%E1%80%AF%E1%80%95%E1%80%BA%E1%80%94%E1%80%8A%E1%80%BA%E1%80%B8/ . 2021-01-11 . 2021-01-09. Hmwe Food Industry. my.
  18. Web site: 6 June 2016. ကင်းမွန်ချဉ်စပ်သုပ်. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20181221084746/http://myfoodmyanmar.com:80/sour-and-spicy-squid-salad/ . 2018-12-21 . 2021-01-09. MyFood Myanmar. my.
  19. Web site: 2020-12-10. မခက်ခဲတဲ့ ကြက်ခြေထောက်သုပ်. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201229084801/https://myanmar.mmtimes.com/recipe/148119.html . 2020-12-29 . 2021-01-09. The Myanmar Times. my.
  20. Web site: 12 February 2019. အိအိလေးနဲ့ စားလို့ကောင်းမယ့် ငါးဖယ်သုပ်. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190215234338/http://myfoodmyanmar.com:80/fish-cake-salad/ . 2019-02-15 . 2021-01-09. MyFood Myanmar. my.
  21. Web site: 2016-07-06. ပြည်ကြီးငါးသုပ်. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170209185917/http://myfoodmyanmar.com:80/squid-salad/ . 2017-02-09 . 2021-01-09. MyFood Myanmar. my.
  22. Web site: သက်သတ်လွတ် ပြည်ပလာတာသုပ် . 2023-05-21 . Taste Window Magazine . my.
  23. Web site: စမူဆာသုပ်‌. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210111072954/http://we.com.mm/detail/10794 . 2021-01-11 . 2021-01-09. WE. my.
  24. Web site: Sochieata . Roth . Khmer chef lights up Montreal's fine dining scene . 2022-04-24 . Phnom Penh Post . en.
  25. Web site: Dunston . Lara . 14 September 2020 . Mee Kola Recipe for the Vegetarian Noodles of Cambodia's Kola People . Grantourismo Travels . 7 January 2021.
  26. Web site: How to Make Kola Noodles/Mi Kola . 2022-04-24 . Cambodianess . en.
  27. Web site: Goldberg . Lina . 30 Cambodian foods every visitor needs to try . 2022-04-24 . CNN . en.
  28. Book: Dubov, Kalman . Kalman Dubov . en.
  29. Book: Martin Smith. Burma - Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. Zed Books. 1991. 978-984-05-1499-1. London, New Jersey. 43–44,98,56–57,176.
  30. Web site: 2020-04-27. How Noodles Bridge the Bay of Bengal. 2021-01-09. History Workshop. en-US.
  31. News: Sarkar. Arita. 2012-07-09. Noodles, garnished with a tinge of Burma. en-IN. The Hindu. 2021-01-09. 0971-751X.
  32. Web site: 2013-10-20. Atho - home style Burma dish. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160512145844/http://www.letzlearntocook.com/2013/10/atho-home-style-burma-dish.html. 2016-05-12. Letz Learn to Cook.