Cuisine of Myanmar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of the Cuisine series
Foods
Bread - Pasta - Cheese - Rice Sauces - Soups - Desserts Herbs and spices Other ingredients
Regional cuisines
Asia - Europe - Caribbean South Asia - Latin America Middle East - North America - Africa Other cuisines...
Preparation techniques and cooking items
Techniques - Utensils Weights and measures
See also:
Famous chefs - Kitchens - Meals Wikibooks: Cookbook

The cuisine of Myanmar (formerly Burma) has been influenced by the respective cuisines of China, India and Thailand. However, in spite of this, Burmese cuisine has unique preparation techniques and distinct flavours unlike any other. Different regions of Myanmar have different variations of "standard" dishes. Use of seafood is more prevalent along coastal cities such as Mawlamyaing (formerly Moulmein), while meat and poultry are more commonly used in landlocked cities. Fish and shrimp from rivers, lakes and streams, however, have traditionally been the main source of protein in a variety of ways, fresh, salted whole or filleted,salted and dried, made into a salty paste, or fermented sour and pressed. Beef and pork, although certainly not forbidden, are avoided by many Buddhists and Muslims respectively. Vegetarian dishes are also common, as especially during the Buddhist lent (Wa-dwin), a three-month rains retreat, eating only before midday (u bouk saunk) and abstaining from meat (thet that lut) is observed by many devout Buddhists.

Burmese cuisine also contains a variety of salads (a thouk) centered on one major ingredient, ranging from rice, noodles, and glass vermicelli, to potato, ginger, tomato, kaffir lime, lahpet (pickled tea), and ngapi (fish paste). These salads have become a popular fast-food in Burmese cities.

Here is a popular expression that sums up the traditional favourites:

" Of all fruit the best is the mango, of all meat it's pork, and of all leaves it's tea."

[edit] Notable dishes

Because a standardised system of romanisation for spoken Burmese does not exist, pronunciations of the following dishes in modern standard Burmese approximated using IPA are provided.

Mohinga is one of the most famous Burmese dishes, consisting of rice vermicelli in fish broth.

• Ba zun thouk (ပုဇ္ဝန္‌သုတ္‌ [bəzun θouʔ]), pickled prawn salad
• Gyin thouk (ဂ္ယင္‌းသုတ္‌ [dʒin θouʔ]), ginger salad with sesame seeds
• Hkauk swè thouk (ခောက္‌ဆ္ဝဲသုတ္‌ [kʰauʔswɛ θouʔ]), wheat noodle salad with dried shrimps, shredded cabbage and carrots, dressed with cooked peanut oil, fish sauce and lime
• Htamin thouk (ထမင္‌းသုတ္‌ [tʰamin θouʔ]), rice salad with tomato puree, potato,glass noodle, toasted chickpea flour, crushed toasted dried fermented beancake,crushed dried shrimp, crushed dried chilli, garlic and dressed with cooked peanut oil, fish sauce, lime or tamarind and coriander
• Htoe mont (ထုိးမုန္‌့ [tʰoumoun̰]), glutinous rice cake with raisins, cashews and coconut shavings
• Kat kyi hnyat (ကပ္‌က္ရေးည္ဟပ္‌ [kaʔdʒiɲ̥ɛʔ], lit. 'cut with scissors'), a southern coastal dish (from the Dawei area) of rice noodles with a variety of seafood, land meats, raw bean sprouts, beans and fried eggs comparable to pad thai
• Kya yoe hinga (က္ရာရုိးဟင္‌းခား [tʃajou hinga]), lotus roots in clear chicken or fish broth
• Kya zan hin, glass noodle soup with chicken, wood-ear mushrooms, dried flowers, onions, boiled egg, garnished with coriander, thin-sliced onions, crushed dried chilli and a dash of lime (Mandalay)
• Kya zan hinga (က္ရာဇံဟင္‌းခား [dʒazan hinga]), glass noodle soup with dried shrimp, wood-ear mushrooms, egg, dried flowers, onions (Yangon)
• Kyauk kyaw (က္ယောက္‌က္ယော [tʃaoʔtʃau]), agar jelly usually set in two layers with coconut milk
• Kyay-oh (က္ရေးအုိး [tʃeiou]), vermicelli noodles in soup with pork offal and greens
• Let thouk sone ([leʔ θousoun]), similar to htamin thouk with shredded green papaya, shredded carrot, ogonori sea moss and often wheat noodles
• Mohinga (မုန္‌့ဟင္‌းခား [mounhinga]), the unofficial national dish of rice vermicelli in fish broth with onions, garlic, ginger, lemon grass and sliced tender core of banana-stem, served with boiled eggs, fried fish cake (nga hpe) and fritters (akyaw)

Shwe yin aye is a popular and refreshing dessert

• Mont let saung (မုန္‌့လက္‌ဆောင္‌း [moun̰leʔsʰaun]), tapioca balls, glutinous rice, grated coconut and toasted sesame with jaggery syrup in coconut milk
• Nan gyi thouk (နန္‌းက္ရီးသုတ္‌ [nandʒi θouʔ]) or Mont di, thick rice noodle salad with chickpea flour, chicken, fish cake (nga hpe), onions, coriander, spring onions, crushed dried chilli, dressed with fried crispy onion oil, fish sauce and lime
• Nan bya gyi thouk (နန္‌းပ္ရားက္ရီးသုတ္‌), as above with tagliatelle
• Ngapi gyet (ငပိက္ယက္ [ŋapi dʒɛʔ]), fermented spicy fish paste or salted fish curried with onions, tomatoes, garlic, chilli and coriander served with to za ya, vegetables fresh or boiled, on the side
• Ngapi gyaw (ငပိက္ရော္‌ [ŋapi tʃau]), fried version with dried shrimp, onions, garlic and dried chilli
• Ohn no hkauk swè (အုိန္‌းနုိ့ခောက္‌ဆ္ဝဲ [ounnouʔ kʰauʔswɛ]), curried chicken and wheat noodles in a coconut milk broth similar to Malaysian laksa and Chiang Mai's khao soi
• Sanwin makin (ဆန္ဝင္‌းမကင္‌ [sanwin makin]), semolina cake with raisins, walnuts and poppy seeds
• Shwe gyi mont (ရ္ဝ္ဟေက္ရည္‌မုန္‌့ [ʃwei dʒi moun̰]), hardened semolina (wheat) porridge with poppy seeds
• Shwe yin aye (ရ္ဝ္ဟေရင္‌အေး [ʃwei jin ei]), agar jelly, tapioca and sago in coconut milk
• Shauk thee thouk, sliced lemon or kaffir lime (no pith or rind), toasted chickpea flour, crushed roasted peanut, crushed dried shrimp, crushed dried chilli, baked fish paste, cooked oil with onions (goes very well and often served with kya zan hinga)

[edit] Chinese-inspired

Si gyet hkauk swè with flat flour noodles, duck meat, chopped spring onions, fried garlic, and oil.

• Pao-see (ပောက္‌စီ [pauʔ sʰi]), steamed buns filled with either pork and egg or sweet bean paste
• Bè gin (ဘဲကင္‌ [be kin]), roast duck
• Htamin gyaw (ထမင္းက္ရော္‌ [tʰa min tʃau]), fried rice with boiled peas (pè byouk),the poor man's favourite breakfast
• Kaw yei hkauk swè (ကော္‌​ေရခောက္‌ဆ္ဝဲ [kɔ̀ jèi kʰauʔ swɛ̀]), noodles and curried pork in chicken broth with eggs
• La mont (လမုန္‌့ [la̰ moun̰]), lit. mooncake, an oily disk-shaped cake filled with either sugar or sweet bean paste
• Mi swan (မ္ရီစ္ဝမ္‌ [mi swa]), extra thin noodles in light broth with chicken or duck
• Panthay hkauk swè (ပန္‌းသေးခောက္‌ဆ္ဝဲ [panθei kʰauʔ swɛ]), halal noodles with chicken and spices, often served by Chinese Muslims
• San byouk (ဆံပ္ရုတ္‌ [sʰan pjouʔ]), a type of rice congee with fish, chicken or duck often fed to invalids, with mi swan a favourite alternative
• Si gyet hkauk swè (ဆီက္ယက္‌ခောက္‌ဆ္ဝဲ [sʰi tʃʰɛʔ kʰauʔ swɛ]), flour noodles with duck or pork, fried garlic oil, soy sauce and chopped spring onions
• Hpet htouk (lit. leaf wrap), meat, pastry paper, ginger, garlic, pepper powder, salt, essentially the same as potstickers
• Dim sum, meat/fish/prawn/crab/sausage/egg/sea weeds, flour, flavour enhancer
• Wettha douk htoe, pork offal, light soy sauce, ginger, chilli sauce, garlic
• Asein gyaw, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, green beans, baby corn, cornflour or tapioca starch, tomatoes, squid sauce

[edit] Indian-inspired

Fried chapati with pè byouk - a Mandalay favourite

• Dan bauk (ဒန္‌ပောက္‌ [dan pauʔ]), Burmese-style biryani with either chicken or mutton served with mango pickle, fresh mint and green chilli
• Fried chapati, crispy and blistered, with boiled peas (pè byouk), a popular breakfast next to nan bya
• Htat ta ya ([tʰaʔ tə ja]), lit. "a hundred layers", fried flaky multilayered paratha with either a sprinkle of sugar or pè byouk
• Malaing loun (မလုိင္‌လုံး [mə lain loun]), Burmese-style gulab jamun
• Nan bya ([nan bja]), Burmese style naan buttered or with pè byouk, also with mutton soup
• Palata ([pə la θa]), Burmese style paratha with egg or mutton
• Samusa (ဆမူဆာ [sʰa mu sʰa̰]), Burmese-style samosa with mutton and onions served with fresh mint, green chilli,onions and lime
• Samusa thouk (ဆမူဆာသုတ္‌ [sʰa mu sʰa̰ θouʔ]), samosa salad with onions, fresh mint, potato curry, masala, chilli powder, salt and lime
• Theezon chin yei, lit. vegetable all- sorts sour broth, with drumstick, lady's finger, egg plant, green beans, potato, onions, ginger, dried chilli, boiled egg, dried salted fish, fish paste and tamarind
• Halawa, a snack made of sticky rice, butter, coconut milk, from Indian dessert halwa
• Hpaluda, similar to the Indian dessert faluda. rose water, milk, jello, coconut jelly, coconut shavings. sometimes served with custard and ice cream
• Hkauk swè, plain noodles, chilli powder, creamed coconut, onions, chicken, salt and green chilli.
• Htawbat htamin, rice made with butter and mostly eaten with chicken curry.

[edit] Shan-inspired

Shan hkauk swè with topu gyaw, with monnyingyin on the side

• Htamin gyin (ထမင္‌းခ္ယဉ္‌ [tʰa min tʃʰin]), a rice, tomato and potato or fish salad kneaded into round balls dressed and garnished with crisp fried onion in oil, tamarind sauce, coriander and spring onions often with garlic, Chinese chives roots (ju myit), fried whole dried chilli, grilled dried fermented beancakes (pè bouk} and fried dried topu (topu gyauk kyaw) on the side
• Lahpet thouk (လက္‌ဖက္‌သုတ္‌ [le peʔ θouʔ]), a salad of pickled tea leaves with fried peas, peanuts and garlic, toasted sesame, fresh garlic, tomato, green chilli, crushed dried shrimps, preserved ginger and dressed with peanut oil, fish sauce and lime
• Shan tohpu (ရ္ဟမ္‌းတုိဖူး [ʃan tou pu]), a type of tofu made from chickpea flour or yellow split pea eaten as fritters (tohpu gyaw) or in a salad (tohpu thouk), also eaten hot before it sets as tohpu byawk aka tohpu nway and as fried dried topu (tohpu gyauk kyaw)
• Wet thachin, preserved minced pork in rice
• Wet tha hmyit chin (ဝက္‌သားမ္ရ္ဟစ္‌ခ္ယဉ္‌ [wɛʔ θa m̥jiʔ tʃʰin]), pork with sour bamboo shoots
• Shan hkauk swè, rice noodles with chicken or minced pork, onions, garlic, tomatoes, chilli, crushed roasted peanuts, young vine of mangetout, served with topu gyaw or topu nway and pickled mustard greens (monnyingyin)
• Papaya Salad

[edit] Starches

The most common starch (staple food) in Myanmar is white rice. Glutinous rice called kauk hnyin is also very popular including the purple variety known as nga cheik especially as a breakfast dish. Various types of noodles are commonly used in salads and soups or fried. Vermicelli noodles and rice noodles are often used in soups, while thick rice and wheat noodles are used in salads. Palata, a flaky fried flatbread is often eaten with curried meats while nan-bya, a baked flatbread is eaten with any Indian dishes. Another favourite is aloo poori - puffed-up fried breads eaten with potato curry.

[edit] Ingredients

Ingredients used in Burmese dishes are often fresh. Many fruits are used in conjunction with vegetables in many dishes. Some common ingredients are:

Mon la gyin - pickled daikon or mooli

Cha-om omelette - a popular dish with ladies

Bu nyunt hingyo - young vine of gourd clear soup

Dunt dalun chin-yei - drumstick sour soup

Pè bouk - dried fermented bean cakes to grill or fry

Thayet chin thouk - fermented green mango salad with onions, green chilli, roasted peanuts, sesame and peanut oil

• Asiatic pennywort (myin hkwa ywet)
• asparagus (ka nyut)
• bamboo shoot (hmyit [m̥jiʔ])
• banana stem (nga pyaw u [ŋə pjauʔ u])
• bean sprouts (pè bin bauk)
• beef (a mè tha)
• bitter gourd (kyet hin ga thee)
• black-eyed pea (pè loon)
• bombay duck (a byè gyauk)
• butter bean (htaw bat pè)
• cabbage (gor bi douk)
• carrot (hka gyet u)
• catfish (nga hku [ŋə ku])
• cauliflower (paan gor bi)
• cha-om, Acacia pennata leaves (soo bouk ywet)
• chayote (gorakha thee)
• chicken (kyet tha)
• chick pea (kala bè [ka la pɛ])
• chickpea flour (pè hmont[pɛ m̥ounʔ])
• chilli (nga youk thee [ŋə jouʔ θi]), dried as well as green
• Chinese cabbage (monnyin byu)
• Chinese chives (ju hpu), roots (ju myit)
• coconut (oun thee [ouN θi])
• coriander leaves (nan nan bin [naN naN piN])
• cucumber (tha hkwa thee)
• drumstick, Moringa oleifera (dunt dalun thee)
• duck (bè tha)
• egg (kyet u), duck egg (bè u), quail egg (ngoun u)
• eggplant (hka yan thee [kʰa jaN θi])
• fermented bean paste (poun yeigyi)
• fermented bean sprouts (pè di gyin)
• fermented sesame cake (hnan bat chin)
• fish (nga)
• fish sauce (ngan bya yei [ŋaN bja jei])
• fish paste ( nga pi sayn za)
• garlic (kyet thun phyu [tʃʰeʔ tuN pʰju])
• ginger (gyin [dʒiN])
• glutinous rice (kao hnyin), purple variety (nga cheik)
• goat mutton (hseik tha)
• gourd (bu thee) and the young vine (bu nyunt)
• green bean (pè thee)
• haricot bean (pè gyi [pɛ dʒi]
• hilsa {nga tha lauk)
• kaffir lime (shauk thee), leaves (shauk ywet)
• kohlrabi (no ko u)
• lemongrass (za ba lin [zə ba liN])
• lentils (pè ni lay or pè yaza)
• lettuce (sa lat ywet)
• lime (than baya thee [θan ba ja θi])
• mahseer (nga gyinn)
• masala
• mango (tha yet thee [θa jeʔ θi]), green as well as ripe
• mint (pusi nan)
• mooli or daikon (mon la u), pickled (mon la gyin)
• mushrooms (hmo {{IPA|[m̥ou]}
• mustard greens (monnyin zayn), pickled (monnyin gyin)
• neem leaves, margosa (ta ma ywet)
• okra, lady's finger (youn ba di thee)
• onion (kyet thun ni [tʃʰeʔ tuN ni])
• peanut (myei bè [mjei be])
• peanut oil (pè zi {{IPA|[pɛ sʰi]}
• pepper (nga youk kaung [ŋə jouʔ gauN])
• potato (a loo [a lu])
• pork (wet tha [weʔ θa])
• prawns and shrimp (ba zun)
• pumpkin (shwe hpa yon thee)
• dried fermented bean cake (pè bouk)
• dried fish (nga chauk [ŋa tʃʰauʔ])
• dried shrimp (ba zun gyauk [bə zuN dʒauʔ])
• rice flour (hsan hmont [sʰaN m̥ouNʔ])
• ridged gourd (hka wè thee)
• roselle leaves (chin baung ywet [tʃʰiN mauN jweʔ])
• salted fish (nga hsa ne or nga pi gaung)
• sambar (hsat tha)
• sesame seeds (hnan [n̥aN])
• sesame oil (hnan zi [n̥aN sʰi])
• shrimp paste, belacan (hmyin nga pi)
• snake gourd (pè lin mwe)
• sour fermented bamboo shoot (hmyit chin)
• sour fermented fish, pressed (nga chin)
• sour fermented green mango, pressed (tha yet chin)
• sour fermented shrimp, pressed (ba zun gyin)
• spring onions (kyet thun meik [tʃʰeʔ tuN meiʔ])
• sweet basil (pin zayn)
• tamarind (ma gyi thee [ma dʒi θi]),green as well as ripe
• tamarind leaves (ma gyi ywet)
• tindora (kinn mon thee)
• tomatoes (hka yan gyin thee [kʰa jaN dziN θi])
• turmeric (sa nwin [sʰə nwiN])
• urad dal, black lentil (mat pè)
• water spinach (ga zun ywet)
• winged bean (pè saun yah)
• winter melon (kyauk hpa yon thee)

[edit] Fruits

Myanmar has a wide range of fruits, and most are of tropical origin. However, some notable Western fruits such as strawberries are also popular. Durian, guava and others are commonly served as desserts. Other fruits include mango, banana, jackfruit, plum, lychee, papaya, pomelo, water melon, pomegranate, mangosteen, sugar-apple and rambutan.

[edit] Eating customs

A typical Burmese meal

Traditionally, Burmese eat their meals with dishes on a low table, while sitting on a bamboo mat, and dishes are served more or less at the same time. A typical meal would include steaming hot rice as the staple, a curried freshwater fish or dried/salted fish dish, if affordable a curried meat or poultry dish instead, soup (hingyo) which if sour is called chinyei, and fresh or boiled vegetables to go with a salty dish almost invariably a curried sauce of pickled fish (ngapi yeigyo) in Lower Burma. Fritters such as gourd or onions in batter as well as fish or dried tohpu crackers are extra.

Out of respect, the eldest diners are always served first before the rest join in; even when the elders are absent, the first morsel of rice from the pot is scooped and put aside as an act of respect to one's parents, a custom known as oo cha (lit. first serve). Burmese people eat with their right hand, forming the rice into a small ball with only the fingertips and mixing this with various morsels before popping it into their mouths. Chopsticks and a Chinese style spoon are used for noodle dishes, although noodle salads are more likely to be eaten with just a spoon. Knives and forks are used rarely in homes but will always be provided for guests and are available in restaurants and hotels. Drinks are not often served with the meal and, instead, the usual liquid accompaniment is in the form of a light broth or consomme served from a communal bowl. However, the Burmese beverage of choice is light green tea (yei nwei gyan; [jei n̥wei dʒun]).

[edit] Influences

The five countries that border Myanmar - India, China, Thailand, Bangladesh and Laos - have influenced much of Burmese cuisine. Indian influences are found in Burmese versions of dishes such as samosas and biryani, and Indian and Bangladeshi curries, spices and breads such as nan (naan) and palata (paratha). Ethnic Indians have a monopoly on such dishes. Chinese influence in Burmese cuisine is shown in the use of ingredients like bean curd and soya sauce, various noodles as well as in stir-frying techniques. Fried insects are eaten as snacks as in Thailand and Laos.

[edit] External links

• Daunglahn - lacquerware dinner tables in the olden days
• Hsaba: please eat, Myanmar recipes
• Myanmar Traditional Food
• Myanmar Food from Alfred Molon's Photogalleries

[edit] References

• Mi Mi Khaing, Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way. Rangoon, 1975