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
