Akha Salsa (saqpir tahq)
The staple of the Akha diet is dry-planted mountain rice, but there are a number of dishes that are uniquely “Akha”. A combination of five types of dishes may be served at a traditional formal meal: a fried dish (usually pork or chicken and vegetables), a boiled dish (a soup, sometimes vegetables, sometimes potatoes cooked with stewing bones), a pickled dish (any combination of vegetables which have been preserved through a pickling process), a crushed dish (a salsa created by combining chili peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and other unique ingredients by mortar and pestle), and a raw dish (raw vegetables used to dip in the salsa, and occasionally raw meats).
This image shows a typical Akha peanut salsa, a great example of the crushed dish. Each family’s salsa will taste slightly different, but all Akha salsas are very fresh and very spicy.
