Burmese salads


Burmese salads 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. Burmese salads are eaten as standalone snacks, as side dishes paired with Burmese curries, and as entrees. The most common or popular, the iconic laphet thoke is traditionally eaten as a palate cleanser at the end of a meal.

Ingredients

Burmese salads are typically centered on one major ingredient, ranging from rice, noodles and cooked ingredients, 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, ngapi, pon ye gyi, and pickled ginger, also feature prominently in several classic Burmese salads.
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" in the Burmese language. Burmese salads are typically named after the salad's central ingredient. Common Burmese salads are listed below.

Fermented products

  • Gyin thoke – salad of shredded pickled ginger, with sesame seeds and assorted fried beans
  • Laphet thoke – a salad of pickled tea leaves with fried chickpeas, peanuts and garlic, toasted sesame, fresh garlic, tomato, green chili, crushed dried shrimps, dressed with peanut oil, fish sauce and lime
  • Ngachin thoke – a salad of ngachin, garlic, shallots, fresh chillies, and coriander
  • Ngapi thoke – salad of ngapi
  • Pon ye gyi thoke ''– a salad from Upper Myanmar, featuring pon ye gyi, raw diced onions and shallots, and dried shrimp
  • Hsei be u thoke'' – a salad made with century eggs, raw shallots, and julienned cabbage and carrots

    Vegetables and herbs

  • Gazun ywet thoke ''– a salad made with blanched water spinach, lime juice, fried garlic and garlic oil, roasted rice powder and dried shrimp
  • Khayanchin thi thoke – a salad made with raw tomatoes, raw shallots, and dried shrimp powder
  • Khayan thi miphok thoke – a salad made with fire-roasted eggplant, shallots, and ngapi
  • Kyaukpwint thoke – a sour Rakhine salad made with kyaukpwint, an edible seaweed
  • Magyi ywet thoke – an Upper Myanmar salad featuring tender blanched tamarind leaves, garlic, onions, roasted peanuts, and pounded dried shrimp
  • Mezali phu thoke – a salad of freshly picked Siamese cassia flower buds, boiled potatoes, sliced onions, peanuts, and sesame seeds, traditionally eaten during the full moon day of Tazaungmon
  • Mon-la-u thoke – a salad made with sliced radish, vinegar, and chilis
  • Myinkhwa ywet thoke – an herbal salad featuring pennywort leaves dressed with lime juice and fish sauce
  • Pethi thoke – a salad of blanched and chopped green beans, and fried onions
  • Tama ywet thoke'' – a salad made with bitter neem leaves

    Fruits

  • Shauk thi thoke – a salad of sliced lemon or kaffir lime, toasted chickpea flour, crushed roasted peanut, crushed dried shrimp, crushed dried chili, baked fish paste, cooked oil with onions
  • Kywegaw thi thoke – a salad of pomelo and shallots dressed in dried shrimp powder, chickpea flour, and fish sauce
  • Mayan thi thoke – a salad made with sour marian plums and dried shrimp
  • Ngapyawbu thoke – a salad of cooked banana flowers, peanuts, and sesame seeds
  • Thayet thi thoke – a salad of julienned green mangoes, mixed with dried shrimp, onions, garlic, and chilis
  • Thayet chin thoke – Fermented green mango salad with onions, green chilli, roasted peanuts, sesame and peanut oil
  • Thinbaw thi thoke – a salad of shredded green papaya, mixed with ground dried shrimp, onions, and fried garlic; tossed in garlic oil, lemon juice, and a little hot chili pepper

    Seafood and meat

  • Bazun thoke – pickled prawn salad
  • Kinmun thoke – a sour and spicy salad made with cooked cuttlefish
  • Kyettha thoke – a salad of shredded chicken, tomatoes, and shallots dressed in chickpea flour, fish sauce, turmeric, and lime
  • Kyetchidauk thoke – a sour and spicy salad made with chicken feet
  • Ngaphe thoke – a salad of bronze featherback fishcakes, diced raw shallots, and raw tomatoes
  • Nga baung thoke – mixed vegetables and prawn, wrapped in morinda leaves and banana leaves outside
  • Pyigyi nga thoke – a salad made with cooked squid

    Rice and noodles

  • Htamin thoke – Rice salad with tomato puree, potato, glass noodle, toasted chickpea flour, crushed toasted dried fermented beancake, crushed dried shrimp, crushed dried chilli, garlic and dressed with cooked peanut oil, fish sauce, lime or tamarind and coriander
  • *Nattalin rice salad – A regional variation of rice salad from Bago Region's Nattalin, served with rice, sliced Burmese tofu, sliced onions, carrots, coriander, cabbage, roasted chickpea flour, fried crackers, roasted chili powder, eaten with garlic, fermented bean sprouts and fermented mango
  • *Padaung rice salad – A regional variation of rice salad from Bago Region's Padaung, consisting of rice, fried tofu, and fried crackers
  • *Pyay rice salad - A regional variation of rice salad from Bago Region's Pyay, served with rice, cellophane noodles, cabbage, potato, mushrooms and bean sprouts, pulverised dried shrimp, chickpea flour and roasted chili powder, fried tofu puffs, and dressed with garlic oil, tamarind juice, fish sauce
  • *Thegon rice salad – A regional variation of rice salad from Bago Region's Thegon, served with potato, julienned green papaya, noodles, cellophane noodles, rice, chickpea flour, fried crackers, and fermented bean sprouts dressed in tamarind juice, garlic oil and chili oil, and traditionally served on Dipterocarpus tuberculatus leaves
  • Khauk swè thoke – Wheat noodle salad with dried shrimps, shredded cabbage and carrots, dressed with fried peanut oil, fish sauce and lime
  • Kya zan thoke – Glass vermicelli salad with boiled prawn julienne and mashed curried duck eggs and potatoes
  • Let thoke sone – similar to htamin thoke with shredded green papaya, shredded carrot, ogonori sea moss, wheat noodles, and glass noodles
  • Mont di thoke – a variety of regional salads featuring rice vermicelli called mont di
  • Nan gyi thoke – Thick rice noodle salad with chickpea flour, chicken, fish cake, onions, coriander, spring onions, crushed dried chilli, dressed with fried crispy onion oil, fish sauce and lime
  • Nanbyagyi thoke – As above with tagliatelle.

    Other

  • Pyay palata or Palata thoke – a salad of hand-torn paratha in a spiced potato curry broth, served with fresh mint, julienned cabbage, and onions, from the town of Pyay
  • Samuza thoke – a salad of cut samosa pieces with onions, cabbage, fresh mint, light potato curry broth, masala, chili powder, salt and lime
  • Tophu thoke – a salad of Fresh Burmese tofu slices, dressed and garnished with peanut oil, dark soy sauce, garlic, and lime leaves

    Regional adaptations

''Mee kola''

Mee kola, also known as Burmese-style noodles, 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. The noodle salad consists of steamed rice vermicelli, cooked with soy sauce and garlic chives, and served with pickled vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, sweet garlic fish sauce, dried shrimp, and crushed peanuts, and garnished with lime and chili flakes. 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. Many refugees settled in the port city of Madras, where a community around Burma Bazaar in George Town formed. Burmese Indian refugees there became street hawkers, selling a dish locally called atho, 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.