Burmese Cuisine

Mohinga is a rice-noodle soup made with a fish-based broth and is widely treated as Myanmar’s national dish. It is commonly eaten for breakfast and may include ingredients such as lemongrass, banana stem, and hard-boiled egg.

Lahpet thoke is a Burmese fermented tea-leaf salad. It combines lahpet with ingredients such as cabbage, tomatoes, peanuts, sesame, garlic, and crunchy beans for a mixture of sour, bitter, salty, and savory flavors.

Burmese food combines influences from India, China, and Southeast Asia while retaining distinctive ingredients such as ngapi, a fermented fish paste. Dishes such as ohn no khao swe use coconut milk and noodles in a way that differs from both Indian curry and Thai noodle soups.

Burmese curries often use relatively mild spice blends and emphasize onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and fish sauce. The cuisine also pairs curries with salads such as lahpet thoke and side dishes rather than serving the curry alone.