EATING IN MYANMAR (BURMA)
VEGETARIANS & VEGANS
334 Drinking Ve nues
You’ll be hard-pressed to fi nd anything resembling the Western concept
of a bar or pub. Most drinking is done at dark shophouse restaurants or
open-air barbecue restaurants, sometimes cutely called ‘beer stations’ in
Burmese English. Opening hours are therefore the same as for restau-
rants. All but Muslim Indian restaurants keep cold bottles of Tiger and
Myanmar Beer handy (charging from K1700 in basic restaurants and up
to K3000 or so in swankier ones). It’s perfectly fi ne to linger for hours
and down a few beers.
Men and women don’t often intermingle at restaurants, so in many
places you may see red-faced men lingering over a slowly massing num-
ber of empty bottles, with full ones always kept nearby by waiting staff.
Tea houses
Teahouses are an important social institution in Myanmar, a key meeting
place for family, business associates or conspirators speaking of poten-
tially freer times. Locals like to sit and chat while sipping tea – some-
times for hours. They’re also a great place for breakfast (see p 334 ), as
many also serve noodles, fried snacks or pastries. ‘Morning teahouses’
typically open from 6am to 4pm, while evening ones open from 4pm or
5 pm and stay open till 11 pm or later.Vegetarians & Vegans
Vegetarians will be able to fi nd fare at most restaurants in Myanmar.
Many Burmese Buddhists abstain from eating the fl esh of any four-legged
animal and, during the Buddhist rain retreat around the Waso full moon,
may take up a ‘fi re-free’ diet that includes only uncooked vegetables and
fruit. Even meaty barbecues have a few skewered vegetables that can be
grilled up. The easiest way to convey your needs is saying ‘I can’t eat meat’
(ǎthà mǎsà-nain-bù). Some Indian or Nepali restaurants are vegan.
Throughout the regional chapters, we highlight some particularly
good vegetarian options or restaurants.Habits & Customs
At home, most families take their meals sitting on reed mats around a
low, round table about 1ftt in height. In restaurants, chairs and tables areBREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONSVirtually every hotel fee in Myanmar includes some sort of breakfast, but the off erings
are usually very basic and/or barely palatable attempts at Western food such as toast
and a fried egg. With this in mind, it’s worth exchanging the comfort of the hotel bubble
for breakfast at a Myanmar-style teahouse. These places are not only cheap and deli-
cious, but also an authentic slice of Myanmar daily life.
Teahouses are the best place to dig into the world of Burmese noodle dishes. Mohin-
ga is usually available as a matter of course, but other more obscure noodle dishes of-
fered at teahouses include oùn-nó hkauq-swèh (a wheat noodle dish with a coconut-milk
broth), myi shay (a Shan-infl uenced noodle soup with pickled tofu and pork) and nangyi
dhouq (a salad of wide rice noodles). Burmese-style teahouses that serve these dishes
are also likely to serve fried rice and t’ămìn dhouq (rice salad), also great for breakfast.
Indian/Muslim-owned teahouses often specialise in deep-fried dishes such as the ubiq-
uitous samosas and poori (deep-fried bread served with a light potato curry), as well as oil-
free breads such as dosai (southern Indian-style crepes) and nanbya (nan bread), the latter
often served with a delicious pigeon pea-based dip. And Chinese-style teahouses often
feature lots of baked sweets as well as meaty steamed buns and yum cha-like nibbles.
See p 63 for our shortlist of Yangon teahouses.Servers in
teahouses around
Myanmar are
‘tea boys’, poor
kids from the
countryside who
bring snacks and
drinks to tables.
They work daily
in exchange for
room, board and
several dollars a
month. One told
us: ‘Some day I
hope to be a tea
maker or a tea-
house manager.’