Mohinga

Mohinga မုန္႕ဟင္းခါး @ Feel, Yangon
( with boiled egg and gourd fritters )

The epic Mohinga ( obviously ),  မုန့်ဟင်းခါး. If you haven't heard of mohinga ( which you should have because if you haven't, you haven't lived ! ), it is a Burmese traditional soup-based noodle dish. There are two ingredients which make mohinga special and different to other noodle dishes. One is the banana stem which gives it a unique crispy texture. Second is the fish which is the most vital ingredient because it makes the soup thick and rich and gives it the 'mohinga' taste. Mohinga is served with thin rice noodles/vermicelli and typically with various fries such as chickpea fritters, gourd fritters, onion fritters and so on. Coriander, mint and bean sprouts are commonly used as garnish along with a slice of lime. This delicacy is an ambiguous mix between savoury and . . . .  not-so-savoury so it's always a delight to enjoy this meal anytime of the day ( well, at least to me it is ). The recipe and taste of mohinga varies with different regions. For example, my family is from the Mon state and the mohinga tastes fairly different from the ones in Yangon. So the next time you're in Myanmar, try out the tastes of different mohinga(s)!

Exotic Meat

I'm not a big fan of exotic meat. I don't mind eating them but I'd rather not. However, one day, my sister who also is a very adventurous woman in terms of food, urged me to follow her to Pago ပုဂိုး ( Yangon ) where there are a few restaurants that serve exotic meat of all sorts. These restaurants are not the most high-end or even average quality restaurants you can find and they are a bit dodgy but when I meant dodgy, I meant not the most pleasant restaurant to take out your partner for a romantic dinner but a really chill place where you can relax with a few friends or in this case, my sister and get away from the city while sipping on a bottle of beer or if available, the traditional fermented palm juice ( ထန္းေရ ). The place was roofed with coconut/palm leaves which is not a rare sight in the rural regions of Myanmar. It was shady and cool and the pollution was at its minimum as it is quite distant from the city. Enough about the place, here are some photographs:

Fried Crispy Frogs ( ဖားႂကြပ္ႂကြပ္ေၾကာ )

Fried Wild Cat with Spices ( ေတာေၾကာင္ )

Spicy Sambur:Deer ( ဆတ္သားအစပ္ေၾကာ္ )  

Fried Spicy Shredded Snake ( ေမြသားအစပ္ေၾကာ္ )

The Scene

So if you were wondering what they taste like, they taste like normal meat like chicken and beef. The sambur tasted like beef and the snake tasted more like chicken but a fraction bit tougher. The wild cat tasted like pork or chicken. Well, you get what I mean they basically taste similar but of course each having their own  unique sense of texture. I did not taste the frogs however because the picture in my mind spoilt my appetite. 

So did I regret trying them ? no. Would I try it again ? no, because I've already tried them and would rather stick to the available everyday meat. Would I suggest trying them ? yes, because it's something new ! 

( I know this is going to provoke some critical opinions from some viewers and I don't think it's wrong if it does because I am completely aware that a fortune of money and effort has been spent to protect animals and their rights. However, please do keep in mind that these are one of the very few spots in the whole of Myanmar that serves exotic food like this and as far as I'm concerned, these are very small businesses ( we were the only customers that whole day ) and I don't think more than one or two of each kind of these  animals need to be slaughtered per week so in my opinion, it is fairly sustainable. )