Food, [mostly] Glorious Food

Chillies at the market

I should start off by saying that many a blog both Evelyn and I read before coming to Myanmar mentioned the food was terrible, so perhaps this sufficiently lowered our expectations, but I have honestly enjoyed almost all the local food we've had the opportunity to eat!

The first week and a half we were here we had to eat out a lot while we waited for our apartment to be ready, so we had the opportunity to try quite a bit - including going on two street food tours!  Here are a few highlights from the last few weeks:

1. Mohinga

Mohinga is one of the 'national' dishes of Myanmar and one that might just be my favourite. It's a fish noodle soup that is traditionally eaten for breakfast/morning snack. I know, fish soup sounds gross but it honestly doesn't taste like fish at all. Apparently, the fish is first brined for 24 hours in turmeric and lemongrass before the broth is then simmered for another 24 hours. By the time it is going in your bowl the fish has basically disintegrated - you can't even tell it's there. In the broth they also add in banana stem - they are big on not letting anything go to waste here. Banana stem is soft and not unlike getting bamboo shoots in your stir-fry. Then you get your choice of fresh noodles - rice or wheat? thick? thin? It is up to you. When it is served one or two big fritters are crushed on top, often made from squash, corn, beans, zucchini etc on top of your bowl - kind of like adding saltines but way more crunch! Top with a little cilantro and add chilli if you want, and you are good to go.

2. Shan Noodles

Shan Noodles and another tofu noodle dish

Nan Gyi Thoke - just add broth!

Shan noodles are a specific dish, but a lot of very tasty noodle dishes come from Shan State. They tend to be a safe bet for delicious food.  Shan noodles themselves are not unlike pad thai buuut at the same time,  are not pad thai - there are lots of peanuts though! Nan Gyi Thoke is another noodle dish, but some assembly is required.  Broth comes on the side and then you mix the thicker noodles with a bit of broth, the chickpea powder, lime and the oil at the bottom of the noodles. We also went to a Shan noodle shop near work where we had Shan sausage - garlicky goodness!  According to the local staff at work (a number of whom are from Shan State), Shan food is some of the tastiest food Myanmar has to offer.


3. Salads

Carrot Salad and Corn Salad

Well, to be honest, I thought that I had more photos of all the different salads I've tried, but I guess I was too excited and just dove in without documenting it first. Salads here just mean a combination of a lot of different ingredients and are not like salads at home at all. The chefs put a lot of thought into the ingredients though - there will be crunch, salt, sweet, bitter, chewy, soft, spice - everything in one bite!!

The most famous salad here is fermented tea leaf salad. The tea leaves are kind of bitter but are offset by very sweet tomatoes and the crunch of fried chickpeas and peanuts. We've also had carrot salad, corn salad, lemon salad (like an explosion in your mouth - seriously), tomato salad, and pennywort salad.

However, my eagerness for salads was my downfall the other week while at training where a traditional Myanmar lunch was served every day. After having my stomach turned by watching my colleagues ingest the biggest crickets I have ever seen as one of their many morning snacks (seriously, they don't stop eating between breakfast and lunch),  I took a helping of the salad at lunch without thinking.  Turns out it was hundred-year-old egg salad and as I swallowed it, it nearly came back up more than once!


4. Street Snacks

Street food is everywhere in Yangon, but my stomach is not really up to the hygiene standards here so we have played it safe and only indulged while on the street food tours where the vendors have been vetted. The street food tours were an awesome experience because our guides were so enthusiastic about food! (and willing to answer my millions of questions...)

Little rice flour 'pancakes'for breakfast - you can get sweet, with a little bit of coconut and sugar, or savoury with some chickpeas and herbs.

Gypsy Snack: a rice flour crepe with a bit of veg, an egg and some curry powder - so good!

Faloodah has become a traditional treat here. As many of you might know, smoothie drinks or bubble tea are not my jam - but I gave this a shot. It has everything in it - rose water syrup, tapioca pearls, some green jello equivalent, ice cream and condensed milk... and probably some other things I am missing.

19th Street in Chinatown after 8pm. Cars are allowed to go down this street but after 8 pm all bets are off. Just a little farther down are bars that take over the street - so the rather original nickname for this street is 'beer street'.

Another favourite of mine - the couple's snack, named for the two halves that go together to form the whole thing. It's made up of rice flour batter, chickpeas and a quail egg, fried over a charcoal fire and then tossed in sesame seeds.

5. Tea

Tea is a big part of the culture here and the preferred way to drink it is at tiny tables with chairs fit for children and full of condensed milk! I am not a fan of sweet milky tea so I generally pass on it when offered. The snacks at a tea shop, however, are delicious! When you sit down a number of plates will be brought to your table and you only pay for what you eat. Paf (or at least a word close to that) are the puff pastries - both sweet, filled with coconut, or savoury like a samosa.  There are also different cakes and a savoury chickpea mixture eaten with chapati.

As delicious at it was, we've only been the one time because we can't read anything in the Myanmar language, so from the street we have no idea what kind of shop is a tea shop!

A handy guide on how to order your tea

Tea time snacks - sorry it's sideways!

6. Everyday Food

This day was delicious - spicy chicken, corn, and samosa salad with mushrooms!

Last week Evelyn and I spent the week in Mandalay with the entire Rule of Law Centre staff from all over the country for Conflict Sensitivity and Inclusivity training (which was awesome!). Every morning there would be some sort of noodle dish for tea break - usually delicious. Lunch was traditional 'Central Myanmar' food and consisted of rice with a number of different stew-like dishes - usually a couple of meat/fish dishes, some vegetables and some kind of salad.  Central Myanmar food is often very oily. The first few days were good, but it went downhill after the hundred-year-old egg salad incident.





7. Htoe Mont from Mandalay

The joy of snacks. 

Pronounced 'Toe Moe', this treat is so popular that EVERYONE who was not from Mandalay at training went to this famous shop, Myint Myint Khin, around the corner to get BOXES to bring home. Naturally, we did not want to feel left out - so off Evelyn went to get us our own stack.

Htoe Mont is kind of a gelatinous block somewhere between Turkish delight and fudge that is made from sticky rice and flavoured with coconut and cashew. I wasn't a thousand percent sold on the texture, but after being refrigerated it was a bit chewier which I liked. The shop also has other treats, like butter bean moon cake and something a bit like carrot cake. My favourite was this other block that was chocolate and coconut and the texture of cookie dough. Yum!