Lahpet

Lahpet is, perhaps, the most famed Burmese food with its creative use of fermented tea leaves. The tart leaves are eaten on their own, typically as dessert, but they're also served in the form of laphet thoke, a salad of pickled tea leaves.

To make the dish: the sour, slightly bitter leaves are mixed by hand with shredded cabbage, sliced tomatoes, crunchy deep-fried beans, nuts and peas, a splash of garlic oil and pungent slices of chili and garlic. The dish is so versatile that it can be a snack, an appetizer or, coupled with a plate of rice, a meal. It's also considered a stimulant: the Burmese says that eating too much laphet thoke can prevent sleep.

Its pickled tea is unique in the region, and is not only regarded as the national delicacy but plays a significant role in Burmese society. Its place in the cuisine of Myanmar is reflected by the following popular expression: "Of all the fruit, the mango's the best; of all the meat, the pork's the best; and of all the leaves, lahpet's the best."

It has three main variations:

• Lahpet chauk or dried tea leaves, also called a-gyan gyauk (crude dry), are used to make green tea - yei-nway gyan (plain/crude hot water) or lahpet-yei gyan (plain/crude tea); it is the national drink in a predominantly Buddhist country with no national drink other than the palm toddy.
• Acho gyauk (sweet and dry) or black tea makes sweet tea (lahpetyei gyo) with milk and sugar.
• Lahpet so means wet tea to distinguish it from dried tea and indicates pickled tea although lahpet is generally synonymous with pickled tea.