Eat Your TeaTM: the unexpected and unfinished intercultural history of fermented tea leaf salad (laphet thoke)

Abstract

“Who would have thought that out of all the dishes on our menu, Americans would go nuts for a salad mixed with a dark savory paste of fermented tea?” The demand for Burma Superstar’s laphet thoke (fermented tea leaf salad) came initially as a surprise to San Francisco-restaurateur Desmond Tan. By 2018 the restaurant’s fermented tea leaf salad was the fourth most popular restaurant item in the country on Yelp. The dish’s nascent stardom is a dramatic departure from a colonial-era description of its key ingredient, laphet (fermented tea), as a “putrescent mass of smashed up leaves.” Witnessing the success of Burma Superstar’s laphet thoke, and a crescendo of interest in Burmese cuisine following Myanmar’s democratic reforms in 2012, an array of American restaurants has offered various versions of it, and dozens of food writers have been quick to publish recipes for it. In spite of the salad’s new-found cult following, laphet has remained rare for chefs and home cooks. This article focuses on laphet thoke, and argues that its origins, material properties, and culinary innovations have contributed to its popularity among American foodies. And, through the example of Tan’s adaptations of the salad and its key ingredient, this piece reveals the processes by which some exotic foods are modified and materialize as trendy fare.