Please “Like” if you enjoy the video, subscribe to the channel, and turn on notifications!
–
What is a salad? According to the dictionary, it’s a mixture of anything served cold with a sauce. In Myanmar, it means something else entirely. Burmese Athoke, or salads, are a massive category that shines a spotlight on each local flavor or ingredient. Everything gets its own salad- fruits, vegetables, leftover curries, deep-fried street snacks, even sauces and condiments. The goal is to make the main character stand out by adding in the right mix of tastes and textures; enhancing the star of the show without overshadowing the key component. It’s a revolutionary approach and an incredible way to explore the entire cuisine, and the meaning of food itself- and that’s exactly what we are going to do.
–
Please consider supporting OTR on Patreon and thanks so much to anyone who does; your support truly keeps us going. http://www.patreon.com/OTRontheroad
Website: http://www.OTRontheroad.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/otr.offtherails/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
–
0:00 – Introduction
1:05 – Iron Chef
3:40 – Just a Few Salads
5:01 – A Thoke
9:49 – Down From the Himalayas
12:07 – The Burma House
13:01 – Salads from North to South
19:36 – The Second Meal
22:10 – Food for Everyone
27:24 – Young and Old
30:19 – Myanmar
34:48 – Connection
41:17 – Iron Chef Again
43:45 – Fits Like a Glove
49:40 – Credits and Post-Credits
–
Video Credits:
41 Comments
Locations:
1) Shwe Kayin: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SPNEmU2SEeUsfWTf7 (note: if you come here, please order the Tar La Baw. It's the signature dish of Myanmar's Karen people and it's incredible. As far as I know in BKK it's only available here)
2) The Burma House: https://maps.app.goo.gl/geZy33dzpXMazwCX8
3) Yoe Yar: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mCyTjf3nEqZKkJyYA
4) Kalyana: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SwPmUCoafShBiBEn6
5) Zawgyi: https://maps.app.goo.gl/kLBkviVncg3AroKF6
I miss Burmese food. Over two decades ago I lived down the street from a few now famous Burmese restaurants and would eat tea leaf salad at least once a week, well before the dish ever became ridiculously famous. I love mohinga even more — one of my top 3 dishes of all time. And when you mention texture… when I think of Burmese food, I instantly think of crunchy chickpeas — they're inseparable.
Shout out to your producers or whoever picks the wonderful background music. I've even looked up a few tracks because they sounded so good.
Gado-Gado, Pecel, Lotek, Karedok, Lalapan, Asinan Betawi, Ketoprak, Salad Pengantin, Selat Usar, Trancap, Urap, Kuluban, Rujak Cingur, Rujak Soto, Tipat Cantok disagree at the title
You know me, I prelike before watching.
there are 2-3 more right next to BTS Bearing. Have you tried it?
Why do thais always have to compare stuff to its neighboring countries like relax and eat your pad thai !
What the hell is an ethnic city?
Please explore northeast india cuisine. The food and culture diversity from mainland india is shockingly large
The baseball mitt leather was the best taste description you have ever made. I think everyone who has had a mitt knows exactly that taste. You are not alone.
A wild theory; what if Thai "Nam Tok" is derivative from the Thok? We has two dishes with that word that totally doesn't make any sense.
In Thai "nam tok" mean waterfall.
But there's the "nam tok" salad, which specifically means the north eastern style salad of some kind of grilled meat.
And the "nam tok" for the noodle, which is a specific kind of boat noodle with blood soup.
I know exactly what you are talking about chewing on the baseball glove.. lol
i think a better description of leathery-ness would be a hickory smoked beef jerky rather than a baseball mitt LOLOLOL
မိုးအေးအေး မှာ ကြည့်ရင်း ကြာဇံဟင်းခါး ပူပူ နဲ့ ရှောက်သီးသုပ် စပ်စပ် ကို ထမင်းပူပူလေးနဲ့ စားချင်လိုက်တာဗျာ😅
Really appreciated this video for introducing Burmese food and culture respectfully 🙌
As a Burmese person, whenever I introduce Burmese food to my non-Myanmar friends, I’ve never felt like “salad” is the correct word for Athoke dishes. It’s more of a literal translation than an actual equivalent.
“Athoke” carries a cultural nuance that doesn’t fully exist in English. “Thoke” basically means “to mix,” but translating every Athoke dish as “salad” can sound strange or even misleading.
One thing I always want to point out is: just call Laphet Thoke “Laphet Thoke,” not “tea leaf salad” — the same way we don’t call sushi “rice with raw fish.”
Accurate of you to say Laphat Thoke is our national dish. Not only because we love it so much and proud so much of it but also because it's the mixture of ingredients originating from all around Burma. Laphat which is tea leaves comes from moutainous Shan, deep fried beans from upper Burma, fish sauce from lower Burma and others from all around the country. It was a luxury food served to kings and monks. There was great poetry about it and we treat it like national treasure. Also it's a true Burmese dish that we don't share with any other country unlike Mohinkha, noodles, curries, soups or some desserts. Hell even palm jiggeries, we share with some nations. Bur Laphat Thoke, we take all to ourselves. No other country in the world eat wet tea leaves let alone pickle it. And it's not only unique, it's also very delicious, very fast to make, most ingredients have long shelf life without any additives or special preserving technique and it require nothing but your hand to make the dish. Which makes it very apocalypse friendly haha.
My memory of Burmese food is they are super big on condiments. Not just bottled sauces but every way to make the dish your way whether you want it spicier or saltier or crunchier or more sour.
That inspires a lot of creativity even if you aren't a chef.
I didnt know we have different varieties of salads untill I found out how few other cuisines have salad types. As a burmese we made a salad out of everything… rice, veggies, fish, meat, noodles you name it 😛
Thank you OTR for discovering
Adam mate,
Quite what was in the basket of bonus food. It looked totally non-salad and yet totally delicious.
OK…now I have to go get A Thoke! Almost reminds me of the variety of salads often offered in Poland. Different compositions but…the idea is similar.
I'll definitely have to watch this video again and take notes. Next time I visit Bangkok I will definitely have to visit a couple of these restaurants. As you know, Kuala Lumpur is FULL of Burmese (and Bengali) migrant workers – they work in a lot of the shopping malls and restaurants, and do a lot of the construction and municipal labor. But I've not come across any Burmese restaurants around here. There must be some that cater to the migrant worker population. Maybe it's just a case of not looking. (I have found Bengali restaurants around KL, they're quite interesting, are distinctly different from the usual mamak/tamil restaurants, and are inexpensive, but few locals know about them.) The only Burmese food I've come across was in Chiang Mai – there's a small chain of Shan vegetarian/vegan restaurants around town. I've eaten at one of them a few times but I haven't tried their salads yet. I suppose some of the salads in this video remind me of "kerabu".
47:30 – that look on Daria when she heard it, with the same confused 'who is this strange American, with his strange American ways?' expression she had when you Adam were talking about Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches LOL
Thank you OTR
Thank you so much. It's a huge boost for us.
I hope you get to try the Mon Raw Fish/Shrimp cure in lime juice overnight. It's a salad that's hard to find, it one of my favorite mon salad. kinda like shrimp ceviche in a way.
After you eat only tea then drink water…Taste like….
Fun fact: Too much salad in one day will mess up your stomach
One thing to clarify is that Chicken curry used in Nan Gyi Thote is not leftover. You cannot use any chicken curry for this salad. There is a dedicated recipe for making Nan Gyi Thote. We have to cook a new one separately. Great video and insight on burmese salads. Thank you.😊 ✌️
a thoke doesnt mean salad, it's a mix of salad and mixed
Awesome video as always! I’m very curious about that pound mutton salad. Maybe I can use machaca (Mexican dry shredded beef) to make something similar.
dude you need to eat shabbat dinner salatim by rebbetzin baron in north jerusalem. she's coming with like 14 little dishes and you'd better eat a lot of all of them
I agree with everything but I'd say the Bamar would refute the country has always been divided. After all 3 Burmese dynasties have united Myanmar before.
Anyways, thanks for the video!
OTR please Do one on Bengali or Bangladeshi Food, one recommendation maybe do one alone in like this Bangladeshi Mash or Vorta theres like hundreds of them and u won't be disappointed.
So one way to describe the stuff is that unlike what US & neighbors might lead you to think, the salads of Burma/Myanmar & other parts of SEA are anything but boring & bland.
does an irish spice bag count as a salad
I bet Burmese salads are very 🥦 friendly.
Great episode as always❤ just wondering; i live in sweden – that means huge representation of thai/chinese/veitnamese (basically any other asian country) food.. except food from myanmar. I was lucky once to get hold of a jar of laphet from a student of my (only burmese person i ever met here) and im really obsessed with burmese food since then. But recipes/ingredients like laphet are a little bit tricky to find in sweden, would you ever concider to do more of a recipe kind of video, like focusing on for example nan gyi thoke (thats my favourite😂)
It's amazing, how many world events happened around 1948!
I love how Burmese food and Bangladeshi food are so similar to each other but also different. One thing I always said, that Bangladesh is the last frontier of South Asian food with South East Asian influences whereas Burmese food is South East Asian food with South Asian influences. These salads are very similar to "Bhorta" that we have in Bangladesh, which is considered as THE most Bangladeshi food that you can think of.
Adam – I never chewed on any leather 😊
One of the best episodes ever ❤️❤️❤️ Keep on with good work 🤗🍀🍻