Let Thohk Sohn – Burmese Rainbow Salad

Watch me make Let Thonk Sohn live on this episode of Savour the Flavour! JUST CLICK HERE!

How would I describe Burmese food? To me, it’s an eclectic combination of South East Asian flavours with a notable Indian & Chinese influence. Take today’s recipe as an example. Let Thok Sohn – Burmese Rainbow Salad is a wonderful mix of flavours and textures that exemplifies food from Myanmar – to many, still a very mysterious land, thanks to the tourist embargo that seemed to have lasted a life time!

Rice (T’ămìn) is a staple in Burmese cuisine, as in many other Asian countries, and is served with a variety of dishes – curry, soup, salad & condiments. For example, a typical meal would consist of a plate/bowl or rice, accompanied by some curry, a vegetable dish or two and some salad, with perhaps a dip on the side. Your senses will be assailed by the hot, sour, salty and sometimes bitter that characterises much of Myanmese food, that can quite often be found in a single salad!

Let Thok Sohn is such an example; it’s a yummy, carb lover’s idea of salad paradise! The name means “by hand”, that is, each diner makes his or her own selection and mixes it all up by hand. Sometimes also called Rainbow Salad, for obvious reasons. In Myanmar, you often find this being sold on roadsides in convenient little “to go” pouches. I have also on many occasions, been served this accompanied by some soup and meat side dish.

To me, it’s a great, exotic party salad that never ceases to impress – I love serving all the ingredients separately on a large platter and letting my guests help themselves to the ingredients that they fancy, be it a little more beansprouts, chilli or the dried shrimp floss!

There is a little leeway here with the salad ingredients, you could omit the odd ingredient here like the beansprouts and tofu and replace them with some lettuce leaves or green beans, really, to suit your taste. See suggestions below.

One ingredient that most people will have trouble finding will be the flat fermented soybean disc/cakes called be bhok, also used frequently in northern Thai cooking. In fact, I have yet to come across it it here in the UK. So, what I’ve always done is used a mixture of peanut butter & sesame oil as a substitute; the oil simply for coating the cellophane noodles.

Eaten at room temperature but you can make everything ahead & place it in the fridge for a couple of hours but I much prefer it at room temperature.

On a side note, my husband, who refuses to eat anything at room temperature and hates cold food, simple adores this!

Now, shall we get our aprons on?

If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!

And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood

Lin xx

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