The reporter of the main station looks at the world! Hello everyone, I am Lin Xi, a reporter from the headquarters in Yangon.
As a neighbor of China, Myanmar, with its rich tea culture, can be regarded as a unique representative in the whole of Southeast Asia. People in most countries in the world love tea, but in Myanmar, the locals have a unique love for tea. You may have such a question, the taste of tea is a little bitter, how to eat it? This past International Tea Day, I visited an old tea shop in Yangon, Myanmar. Today, I will start with this tea shop and talk to you about Myanmar's unique tea culture.
A tea shop called Miya in Yangon, Myanmar
In Yangon's market, the tea shop, Mia, has been in business for more than two decades and is owned by a young girl named Ma Phi Sandu, who has just graduated from university. Worried that his father was old and most of the other young people in the family were studying and working abroad, Ma took over the tea shop from his father. Miya Tea Shop deals not in tea leaves that we traditionally use to brew water and drink, but tea leaves that are used for cold mixing. That's right, it's for eating!
Customers who come to shop for tea snack ingredients
Ma Phu Sandui told me that the Burmese tea snack has been around for a long time and is one of the most famous traditional snacks in the area. In ancient times, in rural Myanmar, the first thing people did when they returned home after a hard day's work was to brew a pot of tea and make a tea snack. Sitting with family and friends, chatting and having tea is the most relaxing time of the day. This custom continues to this day, and in modern Myanmar households, tea snacks are also popular, whether to entertain guests, as a casual snack, or even at weddings and funerals.
The process of making snacks with tea is not simple
So, how exactly do you eat tea? The process is not simple. First of all, after the tea leaves are cleaned, they should be marinated with a large amount of salt, and then boiled after a period of pickling and fermentation, part of the cooked tea leaves are ground to make tea sauce, and the other part will keep the tea leaves in their original state. To make it, all the tea leaves are mixed together, then put green peppers, fried garlic slices and fried beans, and finally mix with a spoonful of peanut oil, and the deliciousness is complete.
Accompany the various ingredients in the tea snack
The tea leaves have been pickled and boiled to significantly reduce its own bitter taste, and with spicy peppers, garlic slices and fried broad beans, peanuts, etc., the final taste can be said to be salty and spicy, unique. With the continuous innovation of local cuisine, tea snacks have derived many new dishes, such as tea bibimbap, tea mixed with corn, mixed seafood, etc., which are deeply loved by the local people.
Lacquer ware is made of tea-mixed snack containers with great care
In addition to the complicated process, the container containing the mixed tea snack is also very particular. Locals often choose a lacquerware box as a container, which is divided into multiple compartments and can be used to hold raw tea leaves, ground tea sauce, chili peppers, garlic and various types of fried beans. And the box must also pay attention to beauty, all handmade, the external color is mainly dark red or yellow, the box body will also be hand-painted with some elephants, rural labor scenes and even Buddhist scripture stories and other patterns, very exquisite and exquisite. Locals believe that using such a box to serve tea leaves to serve friends is more respectful of guests.
Myanmar's unique tea snacks
Speaking of Myanmar people love tea, in fact, it has an inseparable relationship with China. Myanmar borders China's Yunnan and Tibet with borders of more than 2,000 kilometers, and has been an important country along the Silk Road in southern China since ancient times. In ancient times, China's horse gang team, carrying tea, silk and other commercial supplies, passed through Tengchong, Ruili and other places in Yunnan, China, and passed through Myanmar to India, West Asia and other regions. Influenced by traditional Chinese culture, the locals have created their own way of eating and mixing tea leaves while drinking tea. It is said that in ancient times, fermented tea was a token of reconciliation between the warring areas of Myanmar, and when the conflict was relieved, the two sides would exchange fermented tea leaves, so its symbolic meaning of "peace" has been preserved to this day.
A variety of tea snacks and tea bags sold in Yangon supermarkets
Nowadays, in addition to being available in wet markets and restaurants, Myanmar's tea snacks have also entered major shopping malls and supermarkets and packaged as exquisite souvenirs, making them more convenient for local and foreign tourists to buy.
The above is the observation of Lin Xi, a reporter stationed in Yangon, in the local area.
The author of this issue of "The Resident Station Reporter Sees the World" is Lin Xi, a reporter of the General Station stationed in Yangon
(From the Voice of China column "Main Station Reporter Sees the World")
For more exciting information, please download the "Central Radio Network" client in the application market. Welcome to provide news clues, 24-hour reporting hotline 400-800-0088; Consumers can also complain online through the "Woodpecker Consumer Complaint Platform" of the Central Broadcasting Network. Copyright statement: The copyright of this article belongs to the Central Radio Network, and shall not be reproduced without authorization. Please contact: [email protected], we will be held accountable for acts that do not respect the original.