FOODS OF MYANMAR

Myanmar food can be delicious: mohinga, the traditional breakfast, ohn no khaukswe and lapet rank with some of Asia’ best dishes. For a short - term visitor to Myanmar, however, it can be difficult to sample the real thing. Most restaurant serve Chinese food and the hotel British Raj – style curries. The Myanmar eat their food seriously, Myanmar food is or eating mainly just before morning’s pleasantness is lost to the heat of noon, and again as the cool of evening falls.





A breakfast of mohinga is pleasure indeed; a gentle aroma of bananas stem and lemon grass rises, from a bowl of steaming fish soup and rice noodles, topped by coriander leaf, fried garlic, chilli powder, fried corn crackers and a squeeze of lime, wash down with Myanmar tea. Ohm no kayaks, the other “national” dish is again a noodle and soup affair- in Western terminology it might be termed a casserole, for there are chicken chunks in the soup. This time the noodles are of wheat, and the soup is strongly flavored with coconut. The pickled tea leaf called lapet is eaten at all times of days, perhaps as a finale to a rich dinner or when visitors arrived unexpectedly. On such occasion a drink of tea and a lacquer box containing lapet will be produced.


Inside the box are different compartments filled with lapet, fried garlic, toasted sesame seeds, fried broad bean seeds and salt. Lapet is bought ready- prepared in the market, then kneaded with a little sesame oil at home. Then take a pinch of two or three things together with lapet, between tips of three fingers only. In between, wipe fingers and sip tea. Wash fingers only at the end. This is the connoisseur’s way. The taste is refreshing and good, though quite sharp. Those who like spinach salad will be will be immediate converts.


With Myanmar’s abundant supply of fruit and vegetables, salad is served with each meal. Seasonal ingredients are tossed in sesame oil with the crispy nuts and coriander added. In spring it is marian ( mayan thi ) season. This is a small green mauve fruit which resembles as unripe walnut. Its piquant flavor in the a salad is a winner.


Of all the dishes the western palate will sample, the Myanmar specialty last likely to appeal is ngapi. ‘The smell of ngapi’ remarked the by-no-means over-sensitive Sir George Scott, ‘is certainly not charming to an uneducated nose.’


Ngapi is relish to any dish. There are three distinct types: ‘ngapi gaung,’ consisting of whole fish pressed, dried and later eaten baked; ‘ngapi seinsa’ made from the squeezed and fermented juices of shrimp, which is stored in the earthen pots, not dissimilar to anchovy paste; and third the most pungent, ngapi yecho - this is made from small fish which are left unclean in the sun for a day or two, (by which time their condition is better imagined than closely investigated’) then they are salted, pounded and store in clay pots.



If you are interested in sampling Myanmar fare, for local specialties try some of the street restaurants. Festival also provide a good hunting ground for mohinga. A few sensible precautions are necessary; make sure the food is freshly or is steaming hot: never drink tap water and never have a drink with ice in it or eat a piece of already cut fruit or vegetable. Follow these tips and adventurous eating in Myanmar can be a source of true serendipity.