Myanmar
Balachaung
ဘလချောင်း
Dried shrimp pounded and fried in oil with masses of garlic, shallot and chilli until crisp, dark and floss-like; kept as a relish for rice.
south-eastern-asia
Myanmar
Explore 56 foods connected to Myanmar, from everyday staples to rare local specialties.
56 foods12 leading categories1 Essentials guides
Start with Balachaung →
The local shortlist
Myanmar Essentials
11 editor-selected foods for understanding the place through what people eat.
Open the guide →
The full directory
Traditional foods from Myanmar.
56 foods in this view. Filter by category, type, rarity, or search every recorded name.
Filters
Myanmar
Boiled Yellow Peas
ပဲပြုတ်
Yellow split peas boiled soft and served warm with fried onion, chilli, sesame oil and a squeeze of lime, or ladled over rice or naan.
Myanmar
Braised Goat
ဆိတ်သားနှပ်
Goat braised with masala, garlic and dried chilli until the meat pulls apart, an Indian-Burmese dish sold at Muslim restaurants.
Myanmar
Burmese Biryani
ဒံပေါက်
Spiced rice steamed with chicken or mutton in a sealed pot, served with a bowl of sour soup, pickled mango, raw onion and mint.
Myanmar
Burmese Chicken Curry
ကြက်သားဟင်း
Chicken simmered with onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, paprika and fish sauce until the gravy reduces and the oil separates; potatoes are often added.
Myanmar
Burmese Egg Curry
ကြက်ဥဟင်း
Hard-boiled eggs fried until blistered, then simmered in an onion, tomato and tamarind gravy that stays sour rather than rich.
Myanmar
Burmese Faluda
ဖာလူဒါ
Rose syrup, milk, basil seeds, jelly, ice cream and vermicelli layered in a tall glass and drunk with a spoon and a straw.
Myanmar
Burmese Fried Rice
ထမင်းကြော်
Day-old rice fried with boiled yellow peas, onion and turmeric oil, sometimes with egg or Chinese sausage, and served with a sour vegetable soup.
Myanmar
Burmese Green Tea
ရေနွေးကြမ်း
Weak, unsweetened green tea kept in a flask on every teashop table and refilled without charge for as long as you sit.
Myanmar
Burmese Milk Tea
လက်ဖက်ရည်ချို
Strong black tea cut with both condensed and evaporated milk, poured back and forth to aerate, and ordered by sweetness.
Myanmar
Burmese Naan
နံပြား
Flatbread slapped onto the wall of a clay oven at a teashop and eaten with pea curry, condensed milk or plain with sweet tea.
Myanmar
Burmese Pickled Vegetables
သနပ်
Mustard greens, mango or bamboo shoot packed in oil, chilli and salt and left to sour, then served in small dishes alongside rice.
Mandalay, Myanmar
Burmese Sticky Rice Cake
ထိုးမုန့်
Mandalay Htoe Mont is a dense pressed sweet made by pounding glutinous rice with coconut, raisins, cashew and sesame, then slicing it into fingers.
Myanmar
Clear Vegetable Broth
ဟင်းချို
A very light broth of greens, gourd or radish in water with a little fish paste, served to wash down the oil of the curries beside it.
Myanmar
Coconut Agar Jelly
ကျောက်ကျော
Agar set in two layers — clear or coloured jelly under a rich white coconut-milk layer — and cut into diamonds.
Myanmar
Coconut Chicken Noodles
အုန်းနို့ခေါက်ဆွဲ
Wheat noodles in a coconut-milk and chicken broth thickened with chickpea flour, served with boiled egg, raw onion, chilli flakes, crisp fritters and lime.
Myanmar
Fermented Bean Cake
ပဲငါးပိ
Soybean fermented and pressed into discs, dried and either toasted whole or ground into curries as a vegetarian source of umami.
Myanmar
Fermented Bean Paste
ပုန်းရည်ကြီး
Thick, dark paste of fermented horse gram from Myanmar's dry zone, used where fish paste would be in a coastal kitchen. It is a named bean-based accompaniment, distinct from soybean pe-ngapi.
Shan, Myanmar
Fermented Rice Salad
ထမင်းချဉ်
Shan and Intha salad of rice kneaded with tomato and fish or potato, pressed into balls and served with garlic oil, fried garlic and leek root.
Myanmar
Fermented Tea Leaves
လက်ဖက်
Young tea leaves steamed and packed into bamboo or clay to ferment for months, ending up soft, sour and faintly bitter.
Myanmar
Floating Rice Balls
မုန့်လုံးရေပေါ်
Glutinous rice balls with a lump of palm sugar hidden inside, boiled until they float and rolled in grated coconut.
Myanmar
Htamane
ထမနဲ
Sticky rice stirred for hours in huge woks with sesame, peanut, coconut and ginger in peanut oil, made communally for the full moon of Tabodwe. The festival date moves with the lunar calendar.
Myanmar
Husband and Wife Snack
မုန့်လင်မယား
Rice-flour batter cooked in a dimpled griddle with quail egg, spring onion and chickpea, then two halves pressed together into a ball.
Myanmar
Kat Kyi Kaik
ကတ်ကြေးကိုက်
Flat rice noodles stir-fried on a griddle with squid, prawn, fish cake, egg and bean sprouts in dark soy, a Mon and Dawei speciality from the south.
Myanmar
Kyay Oh
ကြေးအိုး
Rice noodles in a clear pork broth with pork offal, minced pork balls and a whole raw egg dropped in to poach, traditionally served in a brass pot.
Shan, Myanmar
Meeshay
မြီးရှေ
Shan dish of round rice noodles dressed with a sweet-sour soy and rice-flour sauce, pork or chicken, pickled bean sprouts and sesame, with a bowl of broth alongside.
Myanmar
Mixed Hand Salad
လက်သုပ်စုံ
A build-your-own plate of several noodles, rice, potato, papaya and beans mixed together by hand with tamarind, chilli, chickpea flour and fish sauce.
Myanmar
Mohinga
မုန့်ဟင်းခါး
Thin rice vermicelli in a thick catfish and toasted chickpea-flour broth built on lemongrass, banana stem and ginger, topped with split-pea fritters, coriander and lime. Mohinga is a nationwide Myanmar breakfast dish.
Myanmar
Mont Let Hsaung
မုန့်လက်ဆောင်း
Tapioca or rice-flour noodles in coconut milk with jaggery syrup, served cold as a spoonable drink.
Myanmar
Ngapi
ငါးပိ
Fermented paste of salted fish or shrimp, pressed and aged until pungent; the backbone of almost every savoury Burmese dish.
Myanmar
Ngapi Yay
ငါးပိရည်
Fish paste boiled down with garlic, chilli and tamarind into a thin, salty dipping liquor served with a plate of raw and blanched vegetables.
Myanmar
Palata
ပလာတာ
Layered wheat flatbread fried on a flat griddle in oil until crisp on the outside and flaky within, eaten savoury with curry or sweet with sugar.
Myanmar
Palm Toddy
ထန်းရည်
Sap tapped from the toddy palm at dawn and drunk fresh and sweet, or left through the day to ferment into a cloudy, sour beer.
Mandalay, Myanmar
Panthay Noodles
ပန်းသေးခေါက်ဆွဲ
Halal egg noodles from the Chinese Muslim Panthay community, served with a spiced chicken curry, chilli oil and pickled greens.
Pathein, Myanmar
Pathein Halawa
ပုသိမ်ဟလဝါ
Pathein Halawa is a named city confection of glutinous rice flour cooked with coconut milk, sugar and butter into a chewy, translucent slab, often studded with cashew or poppy seed.
Myanmar
Pickled Ginger Salad
ဂျင်းသုပ်
Shredded pickled young ginger tossed with roasted sesame, peanut, fried garlic, split peas and dried shrimp.