Burmese Food

Burmese food is an interesting mix of influences from China, India, Thailand and Malaysia and yet is so unique. Curries, stir fries, noodle soups and rice dishes all feature heavily but in a very different way to other countries.

Burma is made up of a number of distinct states which include Karen, Shan and Burma itself and the cuisine is different in each state.

A very common dish that you find served here is Morning Glory with Garlic. This is served with pretty much every rice meal and is high in iron and very flavoursome. A lot of locals will eat this dish for breakfast along with some plain rice and a smidge of curry. Quite different to our breakfasts! This dish is also found all across Thailand but the difference is that in Thailand, it is usually littered with spicy birds eye chilli's that really wake you up.

Burmese curries are quite different from the coconut heavy dishes of Thailand and are probably closer to those of India. They are often cooked early in the day and let to sit with a thick layer of oil to preserve them. As a traveller, this is quite scary as we all know the rules about eating things that are hot! so if you order a curry, ask them to heat it up (Most Burmese can speak some English as it used to be an English colony!). The curries are very delicious, hearty and not at all spicy, so for those who fear the fire of an indian curry, you will be safe eating a Burmese one!

Street Food of Burma

Burma is an interesting country filled with such a variety of foods - some delicious, some not so delicious. It is incredibly different to the firey and fresh tastes of Thailand so we found ourselves really craving chilli and fresh vegetables.

One type of food that is very popular but as a traveller, i could not touch if you paid me, was the street food. In Thailand and Malaysia, I was more than happy to delve in and eat whatever was being cooked on the side of the road (sometimes with not such good reprocussions!) but it was always tasty. In Burma, however, most of the street food leaves a lot to be desired. For example, most of the food cooked on the street is offal - thats right, the guts of a beast! Whether thats intestines, heart, liver or brain, it is consumed here. And its cheap!

There are some indian influences also with Roti a very common sweet street food, but these are also found widely across Thailand and Malaysia

Chiang Mai Feasts

Chiang Mai is full of awesome places to eat and yummy mysterious things to consume. And considering I'm a bit of a foodie, its quite fantastic to be staying in this place for a while. However, looking around and all that food, i am concerned i'll be a fatty by the time i get back! Ahhh, i'll worry about that later ;)

The markets near our pad sell curries and rice and all sorts of delicious things in bags for ~25 baht, under $1.00. And although you may not be quite sure of what you're getting aside from "Chicken" or "Pork", the girl who works in the cafe, Nong, seems quite happy to go and get us things to try.
Som Tam - aka Papaya Salad (see right) - is really yum salad made with papya (obviously), chillis, beans, fish sauce, peanuts and sometimes dried baby prawns too. This one we had in a restaurant on chayaphum road, but you can buy it from stalls on the street and pretty much any hole in the wall place for around 25 baht.

Larb is also really common around here - its basically minced meat of some kind, fried with basil and chillis and i'm sure other stuff and you usually eat it with sticky rice - YUM! Mick and I first ate this in Laos last year, but apparently it is a very common dish in Northern Thailand, Burma and Laos. Hooray!



Fried rice is also available everywhere and is usually a huge serve with meat with it also.Seafood fried rice is very yummo - especially when you get the big chunks of tasty tasty mud crab in it! Again, its usually around 25-40 baht, so around $1.00. I usually can't finish a whole dish of it, so its a good thing Mick is here to clean up the plate after me!


Omeletes also feature heavily on the menus, and are a savory affair of tasty fluffy eggs with anything you like in them - we've had vegetable only ones served with sweet chilli sauce (like the picture) but also ones with seafood and a mass of bean shoots. Regardless of the type, they are very good!!


xx

Cookie and Beer Marinade Recipe

A Couple of Recipes

I really enjoy cooking, anything (except boring food) is on the menu and i like trying out new recipes. Heres a couple of my own recipes that i like to use regularly though :)

Grandmother's Cookies!
(yes, they really are from my G'Ma's recipe)
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 ½ cups self raising flour
Choc chips/walnuts etc

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Beat sugar and butter together until it goes a pale shade of yellow/almost white
Add vanilla and egg & beat some more

Next stir in sifted flour and choc/chips etc by hand

Roll cookie dough into balls (any size you like) and then put onto tray and flatten

Cook until browned (about 15min) and then cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container.
Easy peasy!


Beer Marinade for Fajitas

INGREDIENTS
1/3 bottle beer
1/2 -3/4 fresh lime juice
small "sloosh" olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp brown sugar
dash & a bit more of worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce if no worces available)
small handful chopped coriander
dash of ground cumin

Stir together beer, lime juice, olive oil, garlic, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, coriander, cumin. Add meat and marinate for at least 1 hour.

I'll add some recipes along the way ;)

Sausage Roll Recipe

Another recipe for the collection ;)

Sausage Rolls
500g sausage mince (or normal mince)
1 med onion - diced
1 large carrot - grated
1 large zucchini - grated
spinach - frozen spinach or cooked fresh spinach
tomato sauce - liberal dose
mixed herbs - 1 Tbsp
chilli sauce or fresh chilli
fresh parsley - 1/3 bunch or a decent amount
1 egg
bread crumbs ~1 cup

puff pastry sheets
small amount of milk
extra bread crumbs

*mix all in together with either your hands or a spoon adding more bread crumbs as required.

the mix should be not too sloppy and not too dry/crumbly. I usually make sure that it is sticky enough to stick together and not to the bowl.

*cut pastry sheet in thirds

*put small amount of mix down the centre of the pastry strip.

*fold pastry over so that edges overlap over the meat-mix

.

*cut roll into desired length

*poke fork into pastry at top (side without edges) and dip into a little milk and then some bread crumbs. this makes them yummy and crumbly!

*cook in a 200 degree oven until they are golden brown and delicious!

Now eat and enjoy!!!