A duck farmer tends to his flock by boat on the Ayeyarwady River at Amarapura.

      Not having access to fresh seafood, the people of the central plains generally eat freshwater fish, with the occasional dish of pork or beef. One famous dish from this region is known as "Pork Packets". Finely chopped, seasoned pork is steamed in a banana leaf wrapper and served with a dip of crisp fried garlic, chilli powder, vinegar, salt and sugar.

      The most populated "upcountry" area of Myanmar is the Shan Plateau, a region of mountain ranges and wide fertile valleys with a mean altitude of 1,050 metres above sea level, adjoining China, Laos and Thailand. Food preferences here are influenced not only by proximity to these countries, and to a strong Chinese element in the population, but by terrain and climate. A wide variety of foods is grown here: rice, wheat, soyabeans, sugar cane, niger seed, sunflowers, maize and peanuts; and vegetables including potatoes, cabbage, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, aubergine, hops, kale, kholrabi, lettuce, mustard, rape, roselle, tomatoes and chayote. Fruit from the Shan Plateau and the Kachin Hills includes oranges, tangerines, quinces, damson plums, peaches, pomegranates, persimmons, pears and strawberries. In Myanmar generally, the indigenous tropical and temperate flora has been supplemented by exotics such as the pineapple, tomato, chilli, tobacco, grapefruit, apple, loquat, lychee, sapodilla, sweetsop, soursop and rambutan.

      Fish seldom features on local menus, unless it is dried fish or unless one happens to be in the region of Inle Lake, where freshwater fish is caught. There is a famous composite dish from this area called Kneaded Shan Rice which is based on rice mixed with cooked freshwater fish, onion and seasonings, pressed into shape and decorated with fried chilli, spring onions, and pieces of crisp, deep-fried buffalo skin.

      The Shan are known for their love of pork, and also eat more beef than most other people in Myanmar. However, in Myanmar's more impoverished mountainous regions, all kinds of esoteric items such as ants, grasshoppers, dragonflies and insect larvae are eaten. The Shan and other tribes living in mountainous regions are more likely to use a wide range of wild greens gathered from shrubs and forests rather than vegetables cultivated in fields.

      Soups from this region are more likely to be based on beef or pork stock than made with fish or dried prawns. The soups are not as clear as those found elsewhere in Myanmar, as they are often thickened with powdered soyabean. One example of this is the Shan version of Burmese noodles (kyaukswe), which is based on pork in a soup thickened with powdered soyabean, rather than made with chicken and coconut milk as in the rest of the country.

      The hill rice grown on the Shan Plateau and in other upcountry regions is renowned for its variety and flavour, and unlike the rice of the central and lower regions, depends on seasonal rain rather than irrigation. Glutinous rice, however, is the preferred staple in much of the Shan country, as it is in neighbouring Laos and northeast Thailand.

      All kinds of beans and lentils are grown in the Shan Plateau. They are not only eaten whole for protein, but are also fermented to make a seasoning paste, similar to the sauce made from lentils in central Myanmar.

      Such products replace the fish-based seasonings, such as ngapi, or fermented pressed fish and dried prawns, which are found in the lowland coastal areas and delta region. The Shan tribes also make a fermented soya bean product similar to the Indonesian tempe, which is often dried, pounded and used as a seasoning.

      A farmer winnows paddy in the Shan Plateau Rice is the staple crop in Myanmar.

      Given this wealth of food products, it is not surprising that there were times in Myanmar's history when the king could demand and receive three hundred different dishes for every meal. This extravagant practice was ended in the 19th century by the pious King Mindon, patron of Buddhism's Fifth Great Council, who reduced the number of dishes to a modest one hundred. However, with the dismantling of the centrally planned socialist economy—resulting in the mushrooming of private agribusinesses, livestock farms and seafood farms-supermarkets in Myanmar will soon be displaying products far more varied than ever could have been imagined by the royal chefs of old.

      Savoury coconut rice, a Mon dish of yellow rice topped with catfish, and Fried Rice with Peas are just three examples of rice dishes served in Myanmar.

      A Complex Culinary Mosaic

      Poised between India, China and Southeast Asia, Myanmar has developed its own unique cuisine.

      By Wendy Hutton

      Surrounded by India and Bangladesh to the northwest, China to the northeast, and Laos and Thailand to the southeast, Myanmar has inevitably been influenced by the culture and cuisine of its neighbours. Yet despite the proximity of these countries, as well as large-scale migration of Indians and Chinese during the British colonial period, the cuisine of Myanmar offers a unique range of dishes which deserves to be more widely known.

      China has had a marked impact on the food of Southeast Asia, including that of Myanmar. This is especially true in terms of ingredients, which have now been thoroughly absorbed into the local cuisine. Noodles made from wheat, rice and mung peas are perhaps the most noticeable legacy of China. In Myanmar, these are found in noodle soups like mohinga, a spicy, fish-based dish with sliced banana heart that is virtually the national dish, Another widely available dish is chicken in spicy coconut gravy, ohn-no kyaukswe, which includes either wheat, rice or mung pea ("transparent") noodles.

      Shan, Padaung and Pa-O people sell their wares at a colourful hilltribe market which rotates between five towns in the Shan State.

      The soya bean, a native of China, appears in many guises in Myanmar: soy sauce; fermented soya beans (sometimes pressed into a cake and dried) and beancurd. Taking their cue from the Chinese, the Shan people near the border create a unique beancurd using chickpeas. Beansprouts, so popular in China, are made from several type of beans including soyabeans and mung peas; they are eaten fresh or left to ferment and eaten as a salad or condiment. Sesame seeds and dried black mushrooms are other frequently used Chinese ingredients. Chinese preserved sweet and sour fruits, such as tamarind, mango, Indian jujube and plum, are favourite snacks, although those made in Myanmar tend to be sourer than their Chinese counterparts and contain chilli to cater to local tastes.

      The Indian influence on Myanmar food is seen in the widespread use of ingredients such as chick-peas, coriander seeds, cumin and turmeric. But whereas Indian cuisine relies on a complex blending of spices, Burmese food uses only a few dried spices, adding extra flavour with many fresh seasonings and condiments. Although chickpeas are eaten whole and made into a flour (besari), which is often used in batters, they appear most frequently in Burmese cuisine in the form of a nutty-tasting condiment, made by roasting and grinding the chickpeas to a powder.

      Pungent curry leaves, popular in southern Indian cuisine, are used in some areas of Myanmar, as is the "drumstick", the seed pod of the horseradish or Moringa tree, eaten as a vegetable (in other parts of Southeast Asia, only the leaves are eaten).

      Owing to the presence of a considerable number of people of ethnic Indian origin in rangoon (Yangon) and, to a lesser extent, in other major towns, Indian foods such as griddle-baked breads and almost achingly sweet cakes are widely available and popular with the Burmese. A popular Indian cake of semolina cooked with raisins is also made by the Burmese, although with a local touch in the form of coconut milk.

      The food of Myanmar has, perhaps, more in common with its Southeast Asian neighbours, Laos and Thailand, than with India. The use of fermented shrimp and fish products such as dried paste, fermented fish in liquid, and clear fish sauce has parallels in both Laos and Thailand, where these ingredients largely replace salt and give a characteristic flavour to many dishes.

      The sour fruit of the tamarind tree, most commonly used in the form of a dried pulp, is often preferred to vinegar or lime juice in

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