Raw Vegetables (ghawqnyoer dzaq lef)
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).
These vegetables (sometimes served raw, sometimes boiled) are unsalted and unflavored. They are used similar to chips (crisps) to dip into the Akha salsa. These vegetables are usually snapped and twisted into little balls and then dipped with chopsticks, but they may also be picked up by hand and dipped directly into the salsa. It is acceptable to eat by hand, but once you have bitten the vegetable it cannot be dipped again into the salsa (no double-dipping if you know the term)
