A strip mall in Lewisville is the home of Inlay Burmese Kitchen, whose menu includes a blend of South and Southeast Asian cuisines.
Inlay has an impressive number of curries, stews, and noodles. Try the palatha and curry dip, a coconut chicken curry appetizer served in a small pot with thin Burmese flatbread for scooping. Or opt for the Burmese curry, a slow-roasted curry made with potatoes and lamb or beef.
To counter the hot dishes—especially on a warm day—there’s the Inlay tea leaf salad, a traditional Burmese dish made with refreshing vegetables that are so finely chopped that it must be scooped up with a spoon. (Spoon salads, by the way, are definitely a thing.)
The Inlay tea leaf salad, described as the “traditional” salad on the menu, is made with shredded cabbage, romaine lettuce, fresh and fried garlic, chiles, yellow and green peas, crunchy peanuts, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, jalapeños, and lime tossed in fish sauce and fermented tea leaves.
There are two tea leaf salads listed on the menu, one with and one without fermented tea leaves. My order had tea leaves even though it wasn’t in the item’s menu description. That didn’t bug me, but those who don’t want the tea leaves should take note.
The family-owned and operated Inlay Burmese Kitchen opened in December 2019. Chef and co-owner Seng Mahkaw is self-taught and cooked for her children every day before opening the restaurant, she says. She also cooked for their church and used member feedback to tweak her Burmese recipes.
For the Inlay tea leaf salad, Mahkaw starts with a base of fresh, organic vegetables. It’s important for the food to be fresh; if anything is too old, it could throw off the entire meal. From there, Mahkaw says her secret is to add garlic oil.
She ships in the tea leaves from Burma every two weeks because she couldn’t find any in local grocery stores that would work well with the salad. The Burmese leaves are picked from the top of the plant, she says, ensuring freshness.
“The taste is totally different,” she says. “Even Burmese people know.”
The salad can be served two ways: with the ingredients neatly laid out and mixed at the table, or mixed on a plate ahead of time. We decided to have them mixed beforehand, but next time (for the ‘gram, I guess), we may try it deconstructed.
The salad comes piled high with juices that pool at the bottom of the heap of vegetables. A tiny toothpick umbrella staked at the top is dwarfed by the salad mound upon which it sits. One spoonful of the salad packs a punch. The fermented tea leaves coat the greens and vegetables in an earthy, umami-rich dressing. Each bite is juicy, crunchy, and slightly sour thanks to the lime. I caught myself scooping up a little bit of everything to get the textures of the cabbage, sunflower seeds, and peanuts in one go.
It’s a cooling dish that works as a meal, side, or snack for the warmer months. The salad pairs well with the Burmese curries, which are just as earthy in flavor but not as overpowering or spicy as the curries that are traditionally served in neighboring India.
I should mention that I found out about Inlay Burmese Kitchen through a reader who emailed me asking if I had tried it. I’m glad she did, because the meal was delicious; I’ll come back soon for another salad when temperatures are scorching and it’s too hot to eat anything else.
It’s a good reminder: if you have a place you love to frequent for lunch, shoot me an email.
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