Whenever I travel, food is something I seldom focus on, much less make it the main theme of a blog entry about my latest trip. I’ll try anything once but I must confess I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food.

So I was pleasantly surprised at myself for gamely trying everything that was set down in front of me on my recent trip to Myanmar. I’ve done a fair amount of travelling around the SE Asian region. And being Filipino, my palate is not as sophisticated nor seasoned for chili like our spicier neighbours from Thailand, Singapore or Indonesia. To me, chili is chili. It makes everything taste the same.

Which is why I found Myanmar cuisine so much more agreeable to my relatively simpler palate as they have a lot of the same sour, savoury and salty (oh my, the saltiness!) tastes that characterise Filipino dishes as well. Myanmar cuisine isn’t as spicy as most of the food in the region. It’s has some similarities to Vietnamese with all their fresh spring rolls and vegetable pho soups, and Cambodian, with all the pineapple fried rice that also reminded me of amok. But to my mind (and tongue) Burmese had richer and more flavourful textures than these other two countries (which may be attributed to the liberal use of peanuts, crunchy veggies and deep fried garlic…).

Following is my blow-by-blow rundown of 6 days of food tripping in the ‘Land of the Golden Pagodas’…

12 Hours from Yangon to Nyaung Shwe… by overnight bus!

My first encounter with genuine local food was on the bus ride from the capital to the tourist town of Nyaung Shwe in the Shan State. We departed from Aung Mingalar Bus Station outside Yangon 7 minutes shy of the printed 6 PM departure time, and after about three hours of uneventful driving down the surprisingly deserted national highway, pulled into a local rest stop for dinner. The complex was made up different diners and I simply chose the one that was most buzzing with activity.

The cafeteria set-up made it easy enough to order food even though the staff barely spoke English. The lady who took my order did know how to say, “pork”, or “beef” whenever I pointed at a dish. And I managed to order rice (of course!). I thought I was getting a simple chicken dish with rice and one veggie.

Turns out a standard Burmese meal always consisted of a main dish accompanied by various side dishes like bamboo shoot or tofu salad, soup and other sidings. I was floored when my simple chicken curry rice order arrived with a vegetable platter with peanut sauce dip that I wasn’t even sure I knew how to eat. After observing the other locals around me, I decided to plunge in and followed their actions of wrapping the smaller vegetables within the larger lettuce leaf and dipping it into the peanut sauce. Definitely saw why one needed peanut sauce to add flavour to an otherwise ‘leafy’ tasting dish.

Total dinner bill with one soda can I got from the fridge? Roughly S$2.50.

The Best Pineapple Rice – ever!

The next morning, our bus arrived at the small, quaint town of Nyaung Shwe at around 5:30 AM and after a 5-minute tuk-tuk ride to my hotel at the relatively ‘swanky’ Grand Nyaung Shwe Hotel, I found myself taking what turned out to be an hour-long walk around my neighbourhood. My dawn arrival allowed me to witness the town slowly coming to life: shops setting out fresh produce in newspaper-lined wooden crates, residents sweeping dusty driveways and boatmen flocking to the tourist information office to grab their share of business for the day.

I couldn’t stop myself from taking a nap after a fitful sleep in the coach the night before. So after my walk, I retired to my hotel and slept till noon. I woke up famished and decided I was ready for more local food for lunch.

After navigating my rented bicycle down the town’s tiny and now very busy streets, I went for lunch at an obviously high-end tourist restaurant across the canal where –swear to God– I had the tastiest pineapple fried rice with pork dish I’d ever have in my life! Not sure what those black little ‘mustard-sized’ seeds were (nope, they weren’t pepper) but they certainly made the dish absolutely divine.

However, this was where I got a taste as well of how surprisingly expensive Myanmar can be. My meal for one came to a total of S$7 which is more or less what I pay for a typical hawker lunch back home. Later that afternoon, I rode up a small hill to what was touted as an unusually European wine vineyard for some wine-tasting. Red Mountain Estates had a pretty decent tasting menu at S$3.50 for a set of four variants. After which, guests could buy a glass of their selection for roughly S$4. Which I did, of course!

Local all the way in Nyaung Shwe

So I returned from the wine tasting at Red Mountain slightly buzzed and understandably so after also having taken a puff of the local cheeroot cigars a couple of American ladies had offered me. I was once again starving and decided to cycle back to a small hostel I had chanced upon earlier during my walk. It was located at the edge of the village with charming local decor and was completely deserted despite its multiple signs of ‘the best Shan noodles’. I took a chance anyway and climbed up to their second floor restaurant, snapping photos along the way as I found their many antique knick-knacks and somewhat nautically themed interior design appealing.

The young Burmese couple who warmly welcomed me were extremely accommodating. Actually it was just the wife who chatted to me as her husband was having a drinking session in the lobby with a buddy. No matter. The hot Shan noodle broth flavoured by a thick slab of pork, spring onions, black pepper and some other spices and seasoning I couldn’t identify was the perfect feast after an afternoon of drinking. I was also given green tea (another staple of Burmese meals). I ended up relaxing in one of the bamboo lounge chairs that were lined up against the wall facing the balcony, and simply sat there enjoying the stillness and the silence, save for the orchestra of crickets and frogs that accompanied the evening sky’s transformation from deep blue to black.

The sights, sounds and my strangely satisfied stomach combined with the fresh chilly air was the perfect day-ender to a lovely trip so far…

‘IN na IN’ at Shwe IN Dein  

The next morning, Saturday, I was determined to maximise the day doing the famed Inle Lake tour. I hired a boatman for 17,000 kyat (roughly US$15) for a 6 to 8 hour tour of the lake’s standard attractions such as the leg-padding fishermen; the floating villages of Yawama, Nampan, along with a floating garden of tomatoes; the silversmith, paper umbrella and cigar-making shops; the silk weaving and lotus silk factory; pagodas and monasteries. I paid my boatman extra though to take me to the village of Inn Thein, famous for their collection of over a thousand ancient pagodas dating back to as early as the 14th century, at the height of Buddhism in the country. After a 20-minute boat ride up a narrow canal away from the main lake, we arrived at the village and after some cajoling, convinced my boatman who just wanted to stay with the boat, to come and walk with me up to the pagodas. I’m so glad I did that as I would never have learned some interesting facts nor found a way up to climb up the hill behind the main grounds that offered fantastic views of the entire valley.

By the time he and I finished our tour of the pagodas, the hill, and the massive temple with its long walkway of stalls selling souvenirs (most of which were closed, thankfully!), we were both starving. So much so that my boatman uncharacteristically expressed his hunger. I solicitously apologised and offered to buy lunch and he quickly took us to a local roadside cafe about 5 minutes walking from the tourist site. He was incredibly accommodating, fussing over me and rousing the resto staff to take my order and make sure I had enough of what I ordered on my plate.

It was another fantastic meal comprising of fried chicken, more Shan noodles and what was perhaps my most delightful discovery about Burmese cuisine: chicharon!

The Charm of Chicharon!

This was something I finally started taking notice after about 2-3 authentically local meals. Chicaron or deep-fried and dried pork rinds was a staple food in Myanmar (or at least in the Shan State) and frequently accompanied anything they ate: rice or noodles. Not really sure how this came to be but I was soooo excited and found myself stuffing my mouth full of noodles, together with spices, the by-now-standard pickled veggies, tofu salad, and chicharon, just to experience the pleasure that all these flavours brought together in my mouth. The craziest thing? Our meal for two which included side dishes and drinks (two Cokes and a bottle of mineral water for me and another Coke for my boatman) came to a total of less than 5,000 kyat (US$4)!

By comparison, dinner at Mya Thazin restaurant back at Nyaung Shwe village seemed tame (and super expensive!) by comparison. But I still enjoyed the pork curry set that came with its usual coterie of side dishes, plus mint soup that I requested in lieu of the bean soup that was actually part of the set. They also gave me a free fruit platter for dessert while I logged into their wifi to connect with my siblings back in Manila.

Serendipitous Sunday

Perhaps the highlight of my entire Myanmar trip was the excursion to the floating market that I had to take the next day because I had set out too late the day before to catch the action at one of the villages. I was told by my boatman that the so-called ‘floating market’ shifted locations every day and the day I had chosen to go on my Inle Lake tour, the market was going to be somewhere further down south and would take an extra two hours to get to. He said the next day’s market would happen at Ywama, a village we had already visited that morning, so I decided to just go for it and haggled for a specially discounted price as I was now only going to use the boat for less than 2 hours to go to this one place.

I was set to leave Nyaung Shwe that day as well which meant I had to get an extra early start to the day. I found this brutal after two nights of not sleeping well and I almost called to cancel the tour when the Universe decided to reward me with a special event I assume not many tourists see.

I was pedalling sleepily up the road with the intention of telling my boatman that I had changed my mind when I spotted a column of saffron robes striding purposefully down Strand Road, the main road that ran alongside the river banks. Every couple of street corners or so, locals would greet them carrying pots of hot, newly-cooked rice that they would scoop and dump into the bowls carried by the monks. Their ages ranged from children to senior age. I surmised that they were headed for one of the many pagodas that dotted the landscape of Nyaung Shwe for some kind of Sunday service.

I was so inspired by this sight that I took it as a sign to continue with my adventures as planned. I was further buoyed when I saw that my boatman was already at the docks, smiling and ready to go that we managed to set off 15 minutes earlier than our planned departure.

That Sunday’s Ywama market wasn’t exactly floating. Because the tide was still pretty low during that time of year, my boatman told me the market would be land-based. At first I was disappointed as I didn’t think the market was any different from one I would see in the Philippines. But after walking through the various stalls, seeing the different produce, and more importantly, watching the locals shopping, I couldn’t help but be taken in by all the colours of the scene. I had almost forgotten about our early-morning start until my boatman once again uncharacteristically stated he hadn’t taken his breakfast yet because of our super early appointment. I had to apologise again which he just waved off and proceeded to lead me to a food stall in the very centre of the market. Here, I had the most amazing meal of my entire stay in Myanmar.

A most ‘Intha-resting’ Breakfast…

My boatman introduced me to nge tha min nal (fish), wet tha sin (pork) and Shan rice (sticky, glutinous). The meal consisted of 2 layers of sticky glutinous rice rolled and flattened into a pancake in between which was a combination of dried pork, fish, fried garlic and seasoned with chili and oil (?) and served on banana leaves. It came with and was meant to be eaten with spring onions that my boatman kindly stripped and put on my banana leaf plate, as well as… you guess it! Chicharon! This was what probably had me floored the most: the ubiquity of chicharon in Shan cuisine. As with the previous day, I stuffed everything in my mouth all at once to experience all the flavours fully before washing it down with fresh green tea.

It was pure heaven! What made the experience more incredible was how I could just sit there and watch the market action swirl all around me. Looking the way I do, I was lucky I could blend in without getting stared at or disturbed by vendors selling souvenirs (although no tourists or hawkers were out this early). Only when my boatman spoke to me in English did the heads of the locals turn in puzzled astonishment would I get scrutinised more closely. It was just as well we couldn’t move as the combination of oil and what I guessed was MSG had my head swimming for a while, that I had to drink copious amounts of tea to get rid of the feeling.

The unexpected encounters didn’t end there. Once Nyunt Pe, my boatman, and I resumed walking around the market, I spotted a couple of Kayan women whilst they shopped. I ended up ‘politely’ stalking them around the market for a while, taking advantage of how oblivious they were to me, until I managed to get up the nerve to ask Nyunt Pe to ask them for a couple of pictures. It was a shame I could only say, “”chei-zu tin-bar-te” (“thank you”) but I also squeezed out a “tha tha!” (“goodbye!”) after much practicing with my boatman.

Back at the docks in Nyaung Shwe, I thanked Nyunt Pe profusely for all the wonderfully authentic experiences of local culture and food I had because of him (as opposed to the commercialised attractions of Inle Lake) and gave him an appreciative US$2 tip.

Kindness and Aung San Su Kyi

I thought that would be the end of my food tripping in Inle. But I had a few hours to kill before I had to go to the airport to catch my flight. So I thought of cycling down to this cute little cottage I kept passing by everyday to see if I could lunch there.

When I arrived, the main dining area was full of Western tourists, kids and adults, busily preparing dishes. The staff quickly came out to greet me and apologetically informed me that they were closed for a cooking class that day and not serving any food. I guess my disappointment was so genuine and obvious that without my even asking, the staff member (who turned out to be the owner) invited me inside anyway and asked if it was alright if he served me whatever dish he could make with the ingredients they had left from the cooking class!

I was floored once again by the kindness and hospitality of the locals. His wife then came out and escorted me to the only other unoccupied hut in the garden and I sat back to take in my surroundings: a tiny garden cramped with all sorts of vegetable crops that formed their menu. A waitress served me the freshest, sweetest mango shake I’ve had in ages while I waited. Several minutes later, I was served a simple fare of fried rice with string beans, a portion of fish curry which I guessed was from the cooking class, and a small plate of yummy tofu salad. The fried rice itself was tasty if a bit too oily. But the staff were very attentive and when a fly fell and drowned in my super sweet mango shake, they immediately replaced it.

But the most impressive thing about this restaurant was when it was time to pay the bill. The owner (the husband it turned out) informed me to just pay for the mango shake (1500 kyat) and just donate what I felt was a fair amount for the meal! He then went on to hand me a brochure and tell me about their charity programme where they donate 15% of all their profits to an orphanage in Nyaung Shwe. He was building a library and accepting book donations as well as cash to fund this endeavour. I was so touched by their obvious kindness, generosity and charity that I paid an extra 6,000 kyat even though I’ve had more elaborate meals on this trip earlier.

It was an incredible day of culinary discoveries, all delicious, and all truly unforgettable!

Bagan 

That same afternoon, I took a rather dodgy domestic flight from Heho airport to Nyaung Oo airport to get to Bagan. The weather was even worse than in Nyaung Shwe, darker and heavier with intermittent rain. After checking in to my rather miserable-looking hotel, I quickly asked for a bicycle and the wifi password to research dinner places.

Trip Advisor recommended Weatherspoon’s Cafe on Restaurant Row. So after a short ten-minute bike ride in the dark down Nyaung Oo’s streets, I pulled up at Weatherspoon’s where I ended up sharing a table with a guy who recommended the tea leaf salad. This was another tasty dish although it was more on the spicy side (like Thai-level of spiciness) so I wouldn’t have enjoyed it much save for the nice combination of nuts and fried garlic sprinkled on top. I managed to wash it down with Myanmar beer (that most beer drinkers would probably hate as it’s too watered down but it was perfect for me) as well as a local cocktail called Myanmar Mule which I didn’t particularly care for but still finished, cuz well, one must never waste alcohol…

Bagan Breakfast Buffet

Finally, my Burmese food trip concluded with a couple of savoury breakfasts served by my hotel together with the room package. On both mornings I joined the guests at the rooftop restaurant where breakfast was served daily. Breakfast consisted of different fried rice dishes. One was a coconut fried rice set with deep fried garlic, a rather dry chicken curry (but still tasty!), lotus shoots and of course  — chicharon! Plus fried egg. The other was set was green tea leaf fried rice. The tea leaf fried rice was mind blowing enough but what really drove me over the edge of bliss was the discovery of dried shrimps –or alamang as it’s called in the Philippines– which served as a salty seasoning to the entire dish. I LOVED it. Again, I combined all ingredients in my mouth for a fuller experience. And when my plate emptied, the head waitress didn’t hesitate to take it and mix me a new batch of rice plus the seasoning of the day (coconut or tea leaf).

I’ve never been on a trip where the biggest thing I’ve had to rave about is the food. My waistline has expanded by a few inches just in the week that I was sampling full on Burmese fare. I don’t mind. Once I’m back to the grind and stress of Singapore, losing my appetite on boring old hawker food should help me in shedding off a few pounds again. And even if I don’t, the pleasure of having savoured all those flavours and encountering the kindness, hospitality and accommodation of the Burmese people make the few extra pounds and the few extra hours at the gym totally worth it.

And if nothing else, there will always be my newly discovered love for… chicharon! 😉 It will no longer be just ‘beer-match’ food for me!