Myanmar Cuisine Archives

Myanmar Popular Snacks

Most Myanmar snacks are made of rice or glutinous rice, milk or grated shreds of coconut, with sugar or jaggery as sweeteners. Myanmar people are very fond of snacks as breakfast items, as fast food or at teatime. Myanmar people do not always have dessert during normal meals at home, but it is customary when entertaining a guest or giving a charity feast.

Burmese Pancakes (Beinmoun)

Beinmoun or poppy seeded pancake consist of ordinary rice and glutinous rice batter placed in small pans. A small amount of batter mixed with jaggery solution is poured on the batter in the pans. Some coconut chips and poppy seeds are garnished. The pans are heated by fire placed on and under them. Some edible oil is added to prevent the pancake from sticking to the pan. Then you can have sweet and tasty pancakes. Similarly one can also prepare Htawbat Beinmoun or butter pancakes. Instead of edible oil, butter is used for a different flavour.

Rice Balls (Mote Lone Yay Paw)

Mote Lone Yay Paw are traditional sweet rice balls. The name means food that floats on water in Myanmar language. They are usually stuffed with palm sugar and are often served during the celebration of Myanmar New Year, which is also known as Thingyan Festival. During the festival, which includes throwing water at each other, some youngsters, in the spirit of teasing each other, stuff hot chilies in the rice balls instead of palm sugar. Mote Lone Yay Paw is often served with grated coconut.

Sanwin Makin

This is a delicious Myanmar semolina cake of Indian origin, which is prepared for special occasions. This wonderful dessert is prepared from semolina, sugar, butter, eggs, grated coconut and coconut cream, which increase the flavor. Raisins and walnuts are optional. Sanwin Makin is usually garnished with poppy seeds and is left to cool overnight.

Kyauk Kyaw

Another famous Burmese dessert is Kyauk Kyaw or seaweed jelly. Locals and tourists love this because of its texture and simplicity. Also, because it is very cool and refreshing. The particular seaweed used is known as agar-agar and is often bought dried. To make this dessert, pre-soak the seaweed in water for 2 hours. This will make it swell and get that famous texture. Cook coconut cream in a pot with water that is twice the volume as the seaweed. Add the seaweed and sugar and boil until dissolved. Set in a tray, let cool and refrigerate. For added effect, people often set aside one-quarter of the mixture and let it set and cool as a white jelly. The rest have food coloring added. They are often also cut into diamond shapes and have cool coconut cream poured often when served.

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Myanmar – Where Time Steps Backward

Recently Myanmar is said as a crude gemstone beginning to shine after a long time it fell into oblivion. This ancient country has numerous fantastic religious constructions and architectures, and the nature has kept its pristine, rustic appearance.

Ambling around pagodas in a tranquil, spiritual atmosphere, shopping in ancient markets, enjoying tea along with cakes and jam, everyday wearing the traditional costume, all is just the traditional lifestyle that Burmese people have maintained in this modern world. The time seems to be backward in this country, slow down and peaceful.

A sacred Buddhism country – the country of pagodas

Buddhism is the national religion of Myanmar, so pagodas appears with high density in every region. Burmese people are really devout, really faithful to Buddha. They often offer efforts, goodwill and money and make merit for pagodas or monasteries. Therefore, every pagoda also have stelae and boards recording dedication of Buddhists in around the world.

In Myanmar, it is easy to encounter monks chanting in hours and families praying to Buddha. To obverse the traditional worshiping ceremonies of the Burmese, travelers can go to visit pagodas. These holy places allow to bring snack and drinks. However, before entering pagodas all have to leave footwear and shocks outside.

Shopping at the one-century-market

As a long-standing market built in 1926, located in central Yangon, Bogyoke Aung San market (or Scott’s market) is renowned for its amazing colonial architecture with inner cobble-stone streets. The market is dominated by antiques, Burmese handicrafts, jewellery, clothing and art galleries. Scott’s market is also extremely famous for goods of gemstones (ruby, sapphire, emerald, etc) and pearls. With the ancient, original architecture, it is one of invaluable heritages in Yangon.

Enjoying tea, cakes and jams

Drinking tea and enjoying cakes, adding some sweet or lightly sour, hot jam is a special feature in Burmese cuisine culture.

Tea shops in Myanmar have specific characteristics from various cultures. Sometimes, it is so simple to realize familiar dishes of South Asia such as curry with normal bread or crunchy fried bread. Many people eat bread with dessert. Cakes are made of copra, coconut milk, rice flour, fruits, etc and added not too much of sugar. Sweet is not used as dessert but become a light meal in every morning and afternoon.

Wearing the traditional costume everyday

To many nations in the world, traditional costumes are commonly just worn in holidays; whereas, Burmese people dress traditional clothes everyday. Longyi, name of their traditional costume, a type of skirt, is often sewn into a cylindrical shape. It is worn around the waist, running to the feet. This costume is really suited with the hot climate in Myanmar.

Longyi worn by males is called “paso” (the modern paso is a sewing, tight pant) while those worn by women are called “hta-mein”. Men wear longyi combined with shirts or Taipon, a traditional jacket. Hta-mein of the women quite resembles traditional dresses of Lao or Thai women.

Burmese people are not fussy about dressing as well as their daily life. The women seldom make up, they just apply “thanaka” paste on face and hand as sunblock. >> Read more: Thanaka: The secret of beauty.

Myanmar Cuisine, Myanmar Foods

Myanmar food was strongly influenced by both Chinese and Indian cuisines. As in most of Asia, rice is central to the meal. It’s served with meat or fish, soup, salad, and vegetables as well as savory relishes. All the dishes are laid out on the table family-style. The most common Myanmar dish is meat or fish fried in oil, seasoned with pounded onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric and chili and simmered until most of the water evaporates. Preserved fish or prawn relish is ubiquitous, accompanied by chili powder.

Tables in Myanmar are generally round and low, so get ready to sit on the floor. And no wine or spirits are served at meals. Traditionally, Myanmar people eat with their fingers, but forks and spoons have become increasingly popular.
Soup usually comes in a large bowl to be apportioned among all the diners. Myanmar people regard soup as indispensable to the meal, as they generally drink nothing with meals. When the soup is not available, a hot cup of green tea is served instead.

There are many different styles of soup. You’ll see clear, sweet broths with meat or fish and vegetables; bitter, peppery soups that usually go with salads; sour soups with tamarind pulp or tomato, intended to cut the richness of a particularly heavy meal; thick bean soups splashed over rice.

Salads in Myanmar also differ from their Western counterparts. Raw, boiled or preserved vegetables are thrown together with cooked meat or fish, sliced onion, tamarind juice, chili powder, fish sauce, fried shredded garlic and dried prawn, all mixed thoroughly by hand.

Myanmar people love snacks, which they often eat for breakfast or tea-time. Most snacks are made of rice or glutinous rice, milk or grated shreds of coconut and sugar or jaggery.

Here are some dishes you’re likely to encounter:
Noodles
Khauk Swe Thoke: Noodle salad
Kyarsan Chet: Spicy chicken soup with vermicelli.
Mohinga: Fish soup with rice noodles
Ohnnoh Khauk Swe: Rich coconut soup with noodles and chicken

Rice
Bein Mont: Rice pancake
Mont Sein Paung: Steamed rice cake
Mont Lone Gyi: Rice dumpling with coconut filling
Kauk Nyin Paung: Steamed glutinous rice

Desserts
Jaggery: Palm syrup candy
Kyauk Kyaw: Seaweed jelly, usually topped with coconut milk
Laphet: Pickled tea leaves with a dash of oil, sesame seeds, fried garlic and roasted peanuts
Shwe Kyi: Rich semolina cake
Shwe Yin Aye: Coconut cream sherbet
Thagu or Thagu Byin: Sago or tapioca pudding sweetened with jaggery and enriched with coconut

Pa-O people in Shan State

Look around a Pa-O village, and you’ll feel connected with an ancient past. While the Pa-O live in Shan State, they are more ethnically similar to the Karen (or Kayin) people. There are nearly 600,000 Pa-O, making them the second largest group in Shan State after the Shan themselves.

RELIGION
Most Karen (Kayin) tribes either embraced Christianity or maintained their animist beliefs. But the Pa-O have been Theravada Buddhists for centuries, like many other Burmese people. Their villages can be easily identified by the ornate Buddhist temples built on the outskirts. However, there are still traces of animism in their daily practice, like shrines to appease the ghosts of houses and trees.

CULTURE
Most of their income is derived from growing rice and vegetables. They depend critically on rain; the dances they enact each year to welcome the rain offer another sign of their animist tradition.

HOUSING
The Pa-O build houses from cherry and pinewood, turning to bamboo when wood is scarce. The homes are typically supported by stilts to create room for keeping buffalo or cows. Each home is surrounded by a fence. The food is similar to that served elsewhere in the Shan State. Meals center around rice, often sticky rice. Garlic also plays a major role.

NATIONAL DRESS
The Pa-O were supposedly dubbed “Black Karen” by the British, which makes sense given that their traditional costumes are predominantly black. The women wear bright turbans and scarves to offset the dark colors. Local people say they began to dress this way more than 1,000 years ago when they were slaves to other people.

FESTIVALS
The Pa-O celebrate the same festivals as the Burmese majority, with one addition. On the Full Moon Day of the month of Tabaung, they hold a huge festival. First, they place offerings before the Buddha, with gongs and cymbals ringing throughout the village. Then they feed everyone steaming hot rice – monks first.

Myanmar Popular Snacks

Myanmar – Where Time Steps Backward

Myanmar Cuisine, Myanmar Foods

Pa-O people in Shan State

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