The substitutions guide

Salted, fermented shrimp or fish paste — the deep savor under curries, dips, and balachaung.

• Thai kapi or Malaysian belacan

  Excellent

  1:1

  The same family of ferment. Kapi is slightly sweeter, belacan drier — both utterly at home in Burmese dishes.

• Anchovy paste

  Good

  start 1:1, taste

  Different animal, same job: salt and deep umami. Misses the roasted, funky low note — toast it in the oil to help.

• Miso + fish sauce

  Last resort

  Savory body without the marine funk. For a vegetarian pot, plain miso is the honest choice.

The everyday seasoning salt of the kitchen.

• Any good Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce

  Excellent

  1:1

  Regional brands differ less than labels suggest. Anchovy + salt on the ingredient list is all that matters.

• Soy sauce + a pinch of salt

  Good

  1:1

  The vegetarian route. Darker in color and flavor; fine in curries, flatter in salads.

Pickled tea leaves — bitter, bright, and unduplicable. The soul of laphet thoke.

Make it: Steamed green tea leaves, pressed and fermented — traditionally in bamboo, underground, for months. Our laphet thoke recipe includes a quick home ferment that gets honestly close in a week.

• A week-long home ferment of good green tea

  Good

  Steep whole-leaf green tea, squeeze, knead with a little salt and oil, and ferment sealed. Younger and greener than the real thing, but true in spirit.

• Nothing

  Last resort

  There is no shortcut ingredient that imitates laphet. Order it online — vacuum packs travel well — or make the ferment.

Bagan’s jet-black fermented horse-gram paste — sour, salty, and deep.

• Red miso + tamarind

  Good

  2 parts miso, 1 part tamarind

  Ferment plus sour is the right grammar; the horse-gram earthiness is missing but the dish still speaks.

Pounded into fluff for salads, fried for balachaung, simmered for broth.

• Shrimp floss / hae bee from a Chinese grocer

  Excellent

  1:1

  Same product, different shelf label.

• Katsuobushi (bonito flakes)

  Last resort

  Smoky-marine rather than sweet-marine, and it dissolves rather than fluffs — for broths only, never for thoke.

The workhorse sour — rounded, fruity, brown-sugar-adjacent.

Make it: From block pulp: soak 30 g in 120 ml hot water for 10 minutes, mash, strain. That’s the "tamarind water" our recipes call for.

• Block pulp ↔ jarred concentrate

  Good

  concentrate is ~2× stronger

  Concentrate is darker and sharper; halve it, then adjust. Block pulp is always rounder.

• Lime juice + a pinch of brown sugar

  Good

  Brighter and thinner, but the sour-sweet shape is right. Add at the end, not during the simmer.

The sour leaf of chin baung kyaw — sharp, almost rhubarb-like greens.

• Sorrel

  Excellent

  1:1

  The nearest living relative in flavor — lemony, melts the same way in the wok.

• Spinach + lime juice

  Good

  Texture right, sour borrowed. Squeeze the lime off the heat so it stays bright.

Crisp, mouth-puckering slices for salads and the pickled-mango pork curry.

• Granny Smith apple + lime

  Good

  The classic diaspora move — right crunch, right acid, slightly sweeter.

• Under-ripe papaya

  Good

  Neutral crunch that takes the dressing well.

Toasted for salads and noodle soups; set with water into Shan tofu.

Make it: Toast it dry in a pan over medium-low, stirring, until it smells like warm peanuts — 4–5 minutes. Keep a jar ready.

• Indian besan ↔ Western chickpea flour

  Excellent

  1:1

  Besan (from split chana) is slightly finer and toastier; both work everywhere on this site.

• Yellow split-pea flour

  Good

  1:1

  What much Shan tofu is actually made from — arguably more traditional, marginally less nutty.

Split yellow chickpeas — soaked and fried into pè kyaw, boiled into pè byouk.

• Yellow split peas

  Good

  1:1

  Slightly softer when fried, cooks a little faster when boiled. A fine everyday swap.

The finishing crunch on practically everything, and the perfumed oil left behind.

Make it: Make them once a week from our foundations recipe — the jarred kind gives you the crunch but not the shallot oil, which is half the flavor.

• Store-bought fried shallots + neutral oil

  Good

  Honest weeknight move. Warm a little of the jar’s crumbs in oil to fake the perfume.

• French fried onions

  Last resort

  Battered, salty, and sweeter — the crunch lands, the flavor is someone else’s.

The thin round rice noodles under mohinga and mont di.

• Vietnamese bún (rice vermicelli)

  Excellent

  1:1

  The same noodle in a different bag. Blanch briefly, rinse, and keep moving.

• Thin spaghetti

  Last resort

  A genuinely common diaspora hack for nan gyi thoke — wheat chew instead of rice softness. It works; it isn’t the same.

Smoky-caramel palm sugar — the sweetness in mont and the "Burmese chocolate" eaten neat with tea.

• Indian jaggery or Thai palm sugar

  Excellent

  1:1

  Different palms, same family of flavor. Grate or shave from the block.

• Dark brown sugar

  Good

  1:1

  Sweetness right, smoke missing. Add a small pinch of salt to fake depth.

The peppery herb strewn over mohinga and salads in many households.

• Cilantro + a few mint leaves

  Good

  Covers the fresh-green role; the peppery snap is softer.

Moderate-heat red chilies, fried whole or flaked into oil.

• Kashmiri or guajillo chilies

  Excellent

  1:1

  Color-forward, warm rather than punishing — exactly the right register.

• Cayenne

  Last resort

  Hotter and flatter. Halve the quantity and add paprika for color.

The frying and curry oil whose nutty warmth is part of the cuisine’s flavor.

• Rice bran or canola + a spoon of toasted sesame oil

  Good

  Neutral body with a borrowed nuttiness. For allergies, skip the sesame and accept the cleaner taste.