Food of Myanmar: Not for those with a Peanut Allergy…

So the first thing I need to say about food from Myanmar is that almost everything comes with peanuts. The second thing is that ginger plays very, very heavily.  I know I am addicted to my 1000 Things to Eat before you Die book but, unfortunately, does not have any Burmese food to try.  I knew I would have Elena to guide me (introduced me to this jaggery snack on a stick that is covered in sesame seeds). Since I didn’t have the 1000 Things book to go on, I bought the book “101 Amazing things to Do in Myanmar” to take with me. Several of the foods are listed there so I will start with those:

1.  Mohinga:   Mohinga is a fish stew that they eat for breakfast.  I think that sounds pretty off-putting the reality is that it is more of a chickpea stew that has little or no fishy taste.  It comes with noodles and is quite delicious. 
2. Shan Style Fish Rice:  This has already made it into a picture on a previous post but not described. This is sort of like a crab cake but made with rice.  I had a vegetarian version but they come with a variety of things to include fish. 
3. Burbrit Beer:  This is small batch Myanmar beer that is made at the first Yangon microbrewery. They have multiple beers. I tried a golden beer. Yum. 
4.  Burmese Tea at the Rangoon Teahouse:  So they do serve tea (and the Burmese drink this with A LOT of sugar). They also have food and I enjoyed a variety of foods to include one thing from the 1000 foods to Eat before you Die.  This is an ingredient attributed to Southeast Asia:  Banana Blossoms.  I had these two ways.  One was a banana blossom with chicken served much like stir fry. The second was a banana flower croquette with the banana blossom stuffed with a spicy potato mixture. Another fabulous food there was a crispy pork bao. 
5. Burmese Paratha: I had this at the Rangoon Teahouse as well.  I have eaten plenty of Indian Paratha but the Burmese version is thicker and crunchier. It came with a great lentil dish that was great for dipping the paratha into. 
6. Tea Leaf Salad: This is one of the main Myanmar dishes.  Tea leaves are pickled and then get the usual garlic, ginger treatment.  I will say this was not my most favorite dish (I preferred the tomato salads) but it was good. 
7. Nutrient: So this one is downright strange and I think it might have made me sick but the idea of it is that they put toast on a plate.  Cover this in lukewarm milk.  They sprinkle it with chocolate powder and then put a fried egg (in my case fried for about 10 seconds) on top.  Yuk. I took one bite and decided to bag it. 
8. Yangon Bakehouse:  This spot is that trains women who have fallen on hard times and gives them a profession.  They sell an interesting array of baked goods. I opted for the lemon bar. 
9. Street Pancakes: These are savory and made of glutinous rice flour. They top them with peanuts, poppy seeds and coconut. 
10. Clay pot dish (Myae Oh Myee Shae):  We had this at a Shan noodle house.  Much like other noodle dishes, this is served as a soup and comes with an accompanying pickle (pickled mustard greens) which are really nice as well.    It seemed very much like a Chinese dish and comes, as expected, in a clay pot. 
11. Sweet Cold Rice Soup (Shwe Yin Aye): This is sort of like Boba.  It comes in a glass that is filled with cubes of jelly, tapioca pearls and coconut cream. Not my cup of tea but I don’t love Boba. 

So what is missing? Semolina Cake…. I also loved the potato dumplings we bought in the pouring down rain at the 5 day Inle Market. They were so light and crispy-more of a tempura batter than a dumpling dough. The fresh salads, such as the shredded ginger salad were so refreshing. The Shan noodle houses make a tray of dumplings that all stick together alike a pancake. They use cane sugar (Jaggery) and combine with fruit, ginger or coconut and they are pretty good-but sweet. Finally, there is a stuffed tofu sandwich they sell at the train station-stuffed with cabbage and peppers and the tofu is light and fluffy. The food was, quite delicious. I think Mimi needs to get at least of few of these things onto her 1000 things list!