Pete and I had lunch today in a cheap and cheerful Burmese restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield.
We’ve eaten there before, and whilst it’s not Pete’s favourite, I love the completely different flavours we get to try whenever we go. Today we had the Laphet Thote (Pickled Tea Leaf and Fried Bean Salad). There weren’t many tea leaves in the mix, but then again, the whole plate you see above cost a tiny $5.50. I liked it so much that I brought a serve home for dinner.
The salad had a fantastic texture, with rich, slightly smokey flavours from the fried garlic, peanuts, crunchy legumes and roasted sesame seeds. The tea leaves were slightly bitter (which put Pete off), but the addition of sliced cabbage, chillis and tomatoes kept the salad balanced.
We also had a Chin Paung (Sour Leaf Salad) and a Beef Curry, accompanied by two large plates of rice. The curry was unremarkable, but the salad was deliciously different. Lunch cost $22 for both of us – a tiny price to pay for what felt like an afternoon sojourn to Myanmar.
Bagan Burmese Restaurant
Shop 4/41 The Boulevarde
Strathfield NSW 2135
Tel : 02 8746 0666
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
That looks and sounds yummy. Pickled tea leaf?!! Who would have thought…
Can you say Laphet thote three times really quickly though? :)
I love that idea … can I have one for now and one to go ;-) That is such a compliment for the chef too!
I hope so, Gillian, because they certainly deserved the compliment! Such interesting tastes!
Spice Girl, name the day, and we’ll go for lunch, my shout. :)
Miss E and I had takeaway from Bagan on the weekend after hearing of your lunch last week… and tasting some of the leftovers. We love it. You’re right the key is the flavour combinations that you don’t experience anywhere else. And there are so many items on the menu you could eat there once a week for a year and not have the same thing. I actually like the beef curry though it is quite salty. The samosa salad is gold too. It is sooo cheap.
I must try the samosa salad next time, thank you. And the pennywort salad, that looked interesting as well…