Sf Burmese Tea Leaf Salad appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Lephet thoke (Burmese tea leaf salad) · San Francisco
Fermented green tea leaves mixed with crunchy fried split peas, peanuts, garlic, sesame seeds, dried shrimp, lime, sliced tomato and shredded cabbage. Burma Superstar's defining San Francisco dish.
Lephet thoke arrived in San Francisco with the Burmese community that settled in the Bay Area through the 1990s and 2000s. Burma Superstar opened on Clement Street in the Richmond District in 1992; current owner Desmond Tan acquired the restaurant in 2000 and built it into the Bay Area Burmese reference, making tea-leaf salad a cult dish. The Burmese fermented tea (lephet) is mixed at the table from a divided plate. Today Burma Love, Burma Bites and Mandalay continue the San Francisco Burmese tradition; the salad remains the city's most distinctive imported dish.
Where to eat in San Francisco:
- Burma Superstar
- Mister Jiu's
- Ferry Building Marketplace
- House of Nanking