Ludu Daw Amar on tea salad (8)

This post contains page 199 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:

အမြစ် ။ root
ချန် ။ to leave out; leave behind
ဆန့် ။ stretch out; straighten out; extend
ညှပ် ။ clamp; put sth between two things; interlard; sandwich; hold (sth under one's arm) or (between the fingers)
ပူး ။ bring together; clasp together; stick together
လက်ဝင်ခံ ။ to do with precision
ဆန်းပြား ။ special
ဖြန့် ။ spread; spread out

Translation:

[The person who sliced and fried the grub [shaped garlic] to put into the tea bowl in the donation ceremony of the children and grandchildren of the Ayidaung [tea company]...] after first choosing the garlic [he] chose the little bulbs that can expand the little roots in the head section.

After [he] sliced [the garlic in a] grub [shape] those little roots were removed and [the garlic was] fried.

Being nearly cooked, a small bulb with two pieces that are the same is taken out from the oil and in order to be equally a little long the bulb is first stretched out. After the length comes out, two Shan sesame seeds are squeezed and affixed on the appropriate section of the head portion to be the grub's eyes. At about the place where the mouth goes another two sesame seeds are stuck together and pressed onto [the garlic which is] fried again on the fire. After it is cooked, the little fried grub with two small eyes, a little mouth and with a little hair like hair on the head becomes like a real fried little grub.

Because the person who could do this with such precision and fry [the grub shaped garlic] has died, [such fried garlic] is not specially made anymore and cannot be gotten.

I know that Thailand eats wet tea like us. However, the way that they eat it is to spread out very big tea leaves and wrap the food into bundles with the tea leaves and eat them. As for the way that we eat it, I do not think that every person has an opinion about eating it. In Myanmar the practice of eating tea has dispersed out more and more.