Joanna James
The street food in Myanmar is plentiful and cheap, plus delicious and quite healthy too! If you want a break from restaurants and eat cheap for a few days, you will have plenty of options to keep you happy and satiated. So, let's dig in!
This is Myanmar's traditional pancake. It is prepared from glutinous rice flour mixed with shredded fresh coconut, sesame seeds, peanuts, and butter. It is popular for breakfast and as a tea-time snack. Bain Mont is a firm favourite among the children of Myanmar.
The name translates into 'water snack'. But rest assured, it's more than just water! It is a concoction made from soaked and ground rice mixed with eggs, beans, and flour. Then the dough is kneaded and left to rest. Thereafter, it gets shaped into a disk and fried on a pan to make it nice and crispy. It is a popular festival food item but can be spotted in food stalls all over Myanmar.
Sometimes, you will come across a whole barbecued fish served alongside nutritious veggies like broccoli and lady's fingers. The fish is served with a richly sweet, tangy sauce, and makes a complete and nutritious meal. You may find it a popular dish at many a Myanmar restaurant offered by the likes of PARKROYAL Nay Pyi Taw. Despite the abundance of fish in the country, it is not a very popular choice for the locals.
Also called fermented tea leaf salad, it is an unusual dish where actual tea leaves are the star of the dish! Freshly picked tea leaves are collected and placed in bamboo vats for three to four months, with a weight pressing it down to allow fermentation. The fresh leaves are very bitter and not suitable to eat on their own. After this, the leaves get mixed up with fried yellow split lentils or butter beans, toasted sesame seeds, roasted peanuts, fried garlic, dried shrimp, shredded cabbage, tomatoes, chilli, and oil. It is further garnished with lime juice and fish sauce before serving.
This is another popular dish found on the streets of Myanmar and its streetside shops and made in a variety of ways with all kinds of ingredients. The boiled beans get mixed with fermented tea leaves, onions, chilli, and ginger. It is usually enjoyed with noodles or boiled eggs.
The flaked fish mixture gets stuffed with cabbage, garlic, green chillies and fish paste and fried on a pan. They are perfect for a quick snack and are served alongside a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.
San byoke is congee, also known as rice porridge; a popular staple in many South East and South Asian nations. The sticky rice porridge is quite flavourless, but that's what makes it so great! You can add a range of side dishes to make it a hearty and filling meal that is easy on the tummy. Popular additions include fresh or fried green onions, chicken, fish, fish sauce, fried sesame seeds and chillies.
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