Jump to Recipe Very few meals can answer the chilly weather call better than feel-good stews like Wet Tha Ni Chet or caramelized pork belly. This crowd-pleaser is usually made for sharing at big occasions, where thick chunks of fatty, collagen-rich pork belly are gently braised until meltingly tender. A great deal of magic happens within the two hour of slow cooking: the sauce gets enriched, deep flavors develop and every fiber of the meat becomes succulent. Savory with soy sauce, aromatic with ginger and garlic, it is simply seasoned and mildly spiced, but searing the pork in caramel brings ..read more

Jump to recipe Today I am drowned in waves of emotions, from acute homesickness to longing aches for the good old days and little bit of the age of innocence. So, I made lots of iced gem cookies or mont pae hlaw (မုန့်ပဲလှော်) in Burmese, hoping such blast from the past will be a travelling ticket to times where happiness was as pure and simple as a recycled Ovaltine jar full of these tiny retro treats. They are nibble-sized savory crackers topped with dollops of bright, colorful icing, unnaturally sweet from saccharine sugar. Burmese name for these cookies suggests you eat them like you're ..read more

Jump to recipe Burmese Semolina Cake or Sa Nwin Ma Kin is one of our very few sweet treats that is baked. Well, partially. Baking I know growing up isn’t straightforward as turning knobs and punching numbers in to set temperature and time. Kitchens may come in two – dry and wet, but ovens were hardly part of either because we seldom bake. Also, with unstable and inadequate electricity supply, unfortunately still the case in 2022, ovens just become a waste of space. Made with toasted semolina flour, coconut milk, ghee and either bananas, sweet potatoes, or carrots, as seen here, this cake come ..read more

Jump to Recipe Coconut noodle soup was one of my childhood food aversions eventually becoming the absolute favorite in adulthood. It took me a typhoid to ignite the conversion. My body had only consumed porridge for days, but instantly restored an appetite to the whiff of warm, fragrant soup my mom was making. I remember begging her for a whole bowl, but was given only a couple spoonfuls, not to agitate my weak stomach. Still, it provided the full comfort and satisfaction I needed. This flavor-drenched soup is also particularly dear to me since it is tied to my earliest cooking memory - extr ..read more

Jump to recipe Proudly presenting our national pride: Mohinga, a Burmese fish soup with fermented thin rice noodles. It all starts with making a smooth flavorful broth from extracting natural sweet juices of fleshy fish, ideally catfish, combined with other spices and aromatics. Waking up to a heavenly waft of mohinga, a quintessential Burmese breakfast and the very definition of comfort food is quite common.  We seldom make mohinga at home because first, it is quite a tedious task that requires many hands for long hours and second, it is conveniently available as early as 6am in every ..read more

Jump to Recipe We eat Tea! Laphet Thoke or Tea Leaf Salad is not only the most famous and adored of all Burmese salads, it holds a significant cultural importance. Highly regarded as the king of all leaves, laphet is a perfect appetizer, snack, dessert, palate cleanser, stimulant and can even become a full course meal with just a bowl of hot steamed rice. Laphet serves as a centerpiece for all events, from peace-making and sealing the deals to asking for the bride's hand and the list goes on. Juvenile tea leaves, usually two leaves and a bud, are hand picked and fermented over two weeks. At t ..read more

Jump to recipe I celebrated Save-the-Vegetables Day today. This day actually repeats at least two times a month in my home. It is the pain only someone who is also obsessed with grocery shopping and easily tempted by the sights of fresh greens can empathize. Sometimes, I blame refrigerators and how much it has contributed towards us overbuying and hoarding. But stews are always the most efficient and reliable rescue vehicles and fall is aptly upon us. So a vegetable stew happened with radishes, okras, eggplants, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes plus some chickpeas and eggs . The stew is predomi ..read more

Jump to recipe Certain recipes are worth keeping old school and unchanged for generations. Like this humble and timeless Burmese beef stew recipe that hugs and comforts you just by the thought of knowing that you made it the very same way our mothers were taught by their mothers. The cooking usually takes 2-3 hours, depending on the size and cut of the meat, but your focus and patience in the first 30 minutes will decide if the stew is going to be a make or break. After that, slowly and gently simmering away the combined forces of caramelized onions, aromatic herbs and spices, fresh marinade ..read more

We, Burmese people, love and enjoy making fritters and salads out of everything, from all kinds of meat and vegetables to fruits and even flowers. It is strongly backed by our confidence that we have few killer sauce recipes to dip and dress things up in. These sauces can help anything they are paired with, hit the bull's eye of every sense in your mouth and leave a lasting impression. They embrace almost all flavor profiles; some sharp, some mellow, some expected and some not but together quite invincible. For this tamarind sauce, almost every flavor you can think of is in it - sweet, tart, s ..read more

This week could be the final freezing cold front before the spring swings in. So, I am doing some major slurping on a good old-fashioned Burmese lentil soup, a chunky protein-packed soup with a pleasant chew from the bean threads. This particular soup is always served on the side and rarely gets the limelight that it deserves in the very center. But layering first with seared ground meat and tempered curry leaves elevates it to the level of unparalleled aroma and flavor. In the color department, turmeric and paprika together tint the soup with warm tones, assuring it will provide the same comf ..read more