Myanmar Glutinous Rice Ball Mont Lone Yay Baw · Sweet of Thingyan Burmese New Year မုန့်လုံးရေပေါ်

Thingyan, the Burmese New Year which is celebrated over four to five days in April each year is associated with two things - the water festival and eating mont lone yay baw မုန့်လုံးရေပေါ်  (glutinous rice ball).

History of Lahpet ● Myanmar Pickled Fermented Tea Leaf ● Unique Myanmese Tea Culture

Recently, I tried Myanmese pickled fermented tea leaf. The olive greenish colour fermented tea leaves were soaked in oil and blended with bits of raw garlic and chili pepper. The fermented tea leaves were soft, very gently chewy and moist, wrapped in oil. It tasted somewhat unfamiliar at first. It has a certain subtle smell (like pickled bamboo shoot), slightly tannic in the mouth and tasted bitter with a bit of spicy heat from garlic and chili. (There are non spicy versions too.)

Now I am hooked. 

History of Myanmar / Burma for Foodies ● National Dish Mohinga & Lahpet Thoke

Compared to cuisine of its neighbours like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, India and China, Myanmnese food is relatively obscure to foreigners. 

Most people overseas would not have heard of, let alone tasted mohinga or lahpet thoke, both considered Myanmar's national dishes eaten throughout the 676 thousand sq km (larger than France) country of 54 million people, and more than 130 ethnicities.

Myanmese cuisine is unique due to its geography and history going back as far as 10,000 BC when humans first settled here during the stone age.