Spectacular Cuisine Shaped By History

Chef's Special - Autumn 2007

Myanmar, or Burma as it is still known to many people both in and outside the country, is wedged between China, Laos and Thailand in the east, Bangladesh and India in the north, and the Indian Ocean in the west and south. The largest country in mainland south-east Asia, it extends nearly 1000km from east to west and just over 2000 km from north to south. Around 80 per cent of its population of 49 million resides in rural areas. The cuisine has been influenced by Chinese and Indian cooking, two very different food cultures that have come together on the Burmese table through ingredients such as soybean products (Chinese influence) and chickpea products (Indian influence).

Yet Burmese food has its own distinct flavour. If anything, it is probably more influenced by south-east Asian cuisines than Chinese or Indian food. Although its curries are milder than Thai curries, there are a lot of similarities to its south-east Asian neighbours in the use of lemongrass, kaffir lime, fermented fish products, coconut milk and chillies. The Burmese use only a few Indian spices - notably turmeric, cumin and coriander - preferring to flavour their food with onion, garlic and ginger. Thanks to their common colonial past with India, they still use the English word “curry” to describe their main meat or fish dish. However, fewer than half of these dishes actually contain spices in the Indian style.

Meals are generally based around a selection of dishes eaten together with rice, which just as elsewhere in Asia, is the “belly filler”. Soup is also indispensable. A good Burmese meal is harmonious in flavours (a balance of sweet, sour, savoury, creamy, bitter, astringent, salty and hot) and textures (chewy, smooth, crunchy, crisp, tender and bitey). A devoutly Buddhist country, all meats are acceptable. In some of the more remote parts of the country where the lifestyle is little more than subsistence, meat is a luxury and the locals might have to rely on scorpions, insects, larvae and crickets.

Fish – either freshwater or ocean-caught – is widely available, depending on location. Particularly tasty is the butterfish, an English name given to nga myin or the less expensive nga dan, huge freshwater fish with creamy tender flesh, like halibut or cod. For meat, there are two basic cooking methods. The His Thut method involves sautéing onion, garlic and ginger before adding the meat, a more aromatic way of cooking than the Lone Chet method, where the uncooked ingredients are combined with meat and water before cooking. A good compromise is to use fried onions instead of raw ones, combined with freshly pounded garlic and ginger.

Ngapi, a sharp salty paste made with fermented fish or prawns, is used to flavour many dishes, while gazun ywet, otherwise known as morning glory or water spinach, is abundant just as it is throughout much of Asia. Myanmar cuisine is incomplete without a salad on the side. The Burmese love their salads “chin-chin, ngan-ngan, sut-sut” ie. sour, salty and hot. Pickled tea leaf salad is by far and away the country’s most popular dish and it is served at all important ceremonies. The tea leaves are steamed and buried to mature for six months, before being washed and pounded with garlic, seeped in oil and served with sesame seeds, nuts, fried beans, dried fish or shrimp, and fried garlic.

From sharing lunchboxes with school friends or work colleagues through to welcoming strangers into the family home, the Burmese food culture is based on sharing. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the daily offerings to the monks. The one lasting image of a visit to Myanmar is that of the novice monks, clad in their red robes, who visit local homes to collect food for the monastery. Burmese love to snack on the streets and everywhere you’ll see people cooking and eating by the side of the road. Male hawkers carry food in two loads strung on either side of a shoulder pole, while females carry food on their heads. These vignettes are still common throughout the country, much as they have been for hundreds of years.

Street life in the Burmese capital, Yangon (formerly Rangoon), presents a colourful picture against a backdrop of colonial buildings and the magnificent golden Shwedagon pagoda. The city has some good restaurants offering a wide range of cuisines, and there is a noticeable absence of western fast food chains. The food is generally inexpensive. An exception is Le Planteur, which is priced around the same as a good Australian restaurant and is worth every penny for the beautiful surroundings and fine food. Located in an old colonial building with swish contemporary décor, the restaurant uses prime Australian beef, veal and lamb in dishes such as Veal fillet with fresh porcini; Baked lamb saddle in a salt crust with spices; and Rack of lamb with green tea sauce and Myanmar salads.

Another restaurant worth visiting is Padonmar, in a charming 1920s house with original woodwork, striking decorative touches and serving traditional Burmese dishes. For a more local flavour, the Green Elephant has lots of ambience, while Feel Myanmar offers an interesting buffet of local dishes. Australian Mulwarra beef is on the menu at The Strand Hotel in Yangon, one of the world’s iconic hotels. Built in 1901, it was originally owned by the Armenian Sarkies brothers who also had Raffles in Singapore. There are similarities between the two hotels, seen in The Strand’s colonnaded entranceway, marble floor inlaid with teak, rattan furniture and potted palms, chandeliers and black-lacquered ceiling fans.

Teams from The Strand and the Savoy, another lovely Yangon hotel, have been active participants in MLA’s Black Box Culinary Challenge, with numerous wins between them over the past few years. Afternoon tea at The Strand is an institution, while The Strand Grill, the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, has Grilled Beef Tenderloin Mulwarra served with potato dauphin, spinach and porcini sauce as one of its signature dishes. Ko (Mr) Saw Thar Gay, head chef on the RV Pandaw, worked at both The Strand and the Savoy hotels after completing his training at the Ministry of Hotel and Tourism in Yangon.

Operated by the Scottish-owned Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, the Pandaw offers fascinating cruises on the Irrawaddy and Chindwin Rivers. Travelling to remote regions where few westerners venture, the old-style river boats allow visitors to cruise in luxury while experiencing daily village life. The food on board is a superb mix of Burmese and western dishes, the highlight being a finale dinner of Burmese specialities such as tea leaf salad, gourd soup, mutton curry, braised beef, giant river prawns curry and condiments. Both cruises allow visitors to experience Bagan, one of the richest archaeological sites in Asia with thousands of stupas and pagodas dating from the 9th to the 14th centuries. Daily life goes on just as it has always done, with peanuts, sesame, melons, cucumber and guava farmed in the fields around these remarkable structures, the locals oblivious to the wonder of their surroundings.

FACT FILE

Pandaw Cruises offers 13-day cruises on the Irrawaddy and Chindwin Rivers in Myanmar (Burma) and 8-day cruises on the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia. There is also a 3-day Bagan to Mandalay cruise. The cruises are operated by the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, represented in Canberra by Active Travel (phone 02-6249 6122; www.activetravel.com.au). The Chindwin River cruise is priced from $4945 per person on a twin-share basis. Prices are from Rangoon to Rangoon; international airfares are extra. Departures are on September 1 (upstream) and September 11 (downstream).

© Christine Salins

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