Ludu Daw Amar on tea salad (4)

This post contains page 195 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:

လိုက်ဖက် ။ to go well with, be compatible, match
သူသူငါငါ ။ each and everyone
ဘာသာ ။ by itself
ပေါ်လွင် ။ be evident; be obvious
အစစ ။ everything
အရပ် ။ place, region, location

Translation:

When food is consumed at home it is possible that fried silkworms, fried almonds and pumpkin seeds are not included; but fried onion, fried chick peas, roasted sesame [seeds] and fried peanut hair tend to be included.

When eating tea in this way with many kinds of foods the importance of fried onion is great. The reason is that amongst all of the fried and roasted things that are eaten together with tea fried onion is the most compatible with [and] is the best [food to be] eaten with tea. To say 'fried jet-thon' is to speak of fried garlic.

This fried garlic eaten alone is not good, it cannot be. [But when] it is eaten together with tea, no other food can compare. Therefore, fried garlic is a pure fried thing that can be eaten with tea.

Having it in this way, since each and everyone has oil, if there is garlic, then as much as it is a place where one cannot buy fried things, for people who want to eat, it is only eaten fried by itself. However, that fried garlic will surely by fragrant. There are not many people who are capable of frying it so as to make it's flavour become fully evident.

Amongst the [various types of] fried garlic that are fried and sold to eat with tea, 'fried Pyinmana [garlic]' is the most famous. Amongst the fried garlic that is exported from Pyinmana, Daw Aye Yin's fried garlic has become famous as being the best. The reason is that in frying the garlic Daw Aye Yin does everything with care in order for it to be the best. She sends a little more than a lot to the market.

In our country there are very many places which produce garlic. Amongst [those places] that have [garlic] in this way, if fried garlic is fried to eat with tea, then the garlic that is produced from southern Shan State is the best garlic to fry.

In southern Shan State, the first level [best quality] garlic for frying is the garlic that is produced from the Taung-Gyi region. If finished purchasing as much as can be gotten of that which is produced in Taung-Gyi, then [a person] can go and buy at See-saing, Ho-bon, Ban-yin, Nan-Khote, Bindaya and such places. If garlic can no longer be acquired in the southern area, then please use garlic from Naung-cho [and/or] Sipaw [in] the northern area. Although the flavour [of garlic from the north] cannot reach [that of the garlic from] the southern area it follows as the second level [second best quality].