Ludu Daw Amar on tea salad (2)

This post contains page 193 of a short piece of writing by Ludu Daw Amar titled "Fried Onion Work" from her 2002 book ၁၂ ပွဲဈေးသည်နှင့် ကျွန်မအညာ [12 Market Sellers and My Upper Burma]. "Fried Onion Work" runs from page 192 to 199 of the book. A complete PDF of this piece can be downloaded from the non-fiction section of this blog's library here.

Vocabulary:

ခံတွင်း ။ inside the mouth
တည်ခင်း ။ to serve
ကျွေးမွေး ။ to feed
ဧည့်ခံ ။ to entertain
သွားရည် ။ saliva
နှစ်သက် ။ love; be fond; be pleased with; like
ဟန်လုပ် ။ to affect modesty, to be snobbish
ဆိမ့် ။ to be rich in taste
မယုတ်မလွန် ။ without committing oneself; moderately
တွဲဖက် ။ partner; do things together jointly
အိ ။ soft, tender
ဆမ်း ။ pour or sprinkle (such as oil,sauce, etc on food)
ပြီးစလွယ် ။ without giving much thought or taking much care; perfunctorily; indifferently; casually
လုံ ။ to be protected
ခက် ။ offshoot from the branch; twig; spray
ဖွ ။ to fluff [up], ruffle
နှံ့ ။ to spread out
ဖြူး ။ to sprinkle
ဆွ ။ loosen or turn up
နှပ် ။ to tenderize
ပင်ကိုယ် ။ original, natural
မြုံ့ ။ chew slowly with relish; munch
ချွတ် ။ to clean, scrape
လှော ။ to roast
ရွရွ ။ lightly or daintily
ပဲခြမ်း ။ chick pea

Translation:

Our country consumes wet tea as a traditional custom. It is eaten to relieve the sour taste inside the mouth. In serving food and entertaining [guests], [wet tea] is served as something to eat. Bean snack saliva [?] is eaten as [much as] one wishes. In this era, because curry is scarce, [wet tea] is eaten as curry together with rice.​

Women eat tea more fondly tea than men. Because [women] want excessively to be modern, [they] take off their tamein and wear trousers. And young women who say that they wear skirts, if [they] are seen with tea, [they] cannot possibly pretend to be modest.

If [you] sample [a taste of] wet tea, then [you] will see one and another [of the] moderately joined four tastes, which are an astringent taste, a bitter taste, a sour taste and a rich taste. [The tea] is eaten after adding just the proper amount of salt to that [wet tea] and pouring on a little bit of real sesame oil and peanut oil so that it is tender.

It is important to mix in a little bit of salt. Due to mixing without taking much care, it will not be good. After the tea leaves are well steamed, because they are items that have been packed well in a basket [and] protected from wind [and] protected from water, the small tea leaves must by fluffed by hand so that each leaf, each twig becomes [unpacked] before salt is added. After that, salt is sprinkled and [the tea leaves are] mixed and loosened up in order for [the salt] to be spread out. If the tea is not very salty, it is not good. If the tea is eaten with complete hunger, add salt heavily and mix it in.

In the present era, some young people still wash the tea. Afterward, they add lemon water, soup powder and then tenderize it with salt and with oil. Old people do not like washing [the tea] with water so as to ruin the tea's natural flavour, and then add soup powder. All old people do not like lemon water. Only some like it.

If [the tea] has been tenderized to one's liking, when rural and mountain folk eat and drink they put into their mouths just the tea that relieves the sour taste in and chew it slowly with relish. For them, they cannot stay without eating. That is sufficient; if they eat, they are pleased. In some tea boxes of people who are at ease, [they] are able to lightly include a little bit of sesame that has been cleaned and roasted in their home. In some boxes [there is] a little bit of garlic, a little bit of fried [stuff]. [In] some a little bit of fried peanut hair [?], a little bit of fried chick pea, whatever kinds are available can be included. Mostly...