Theplas: check
Ready to eats: check
Packaged food: check
SOS words: check
I was a vegetarian traveling to Myanmar: a country predominately consuming nonvegetarian fare.
Thoroughly acquainted with the menu of Burma Burma in Mumbai, I looked forward to gorge on all that I ate under the plush decor of this restaurant, on the streets of Myanmar.
But then the food gods had other plans.
I hardly found what I ate back in Mumbai or even remotely close to it in Myanmar.
When I lost all hope, the county surprised me in tiny little ways, dishing out delicious vegetarian fare where I least expected it.
If you’re a vegetarian and want to travel to Myanmar read along!
Vegetarian for them includes fish. Fish oil is extensively used in their cuisine. When you wish to ask for completely vegetarian meals you need to say “Tathaloo” this means lifeless. As it is a Buddhist country there are ‘lifeless’ options available.
A quick guide:
” Teh Ta loo Shila?” – “Do you have vegetarian food?”
“Teh ta loo la?” – “Is this vegetarian?”
“Atha ma sa bu”- “I do not eat meat”
Fresh salads are the safest and best options as fresh fruits and vegetables are aplenty in Myanmar.
The Burmese eat fruits as dessert and grapes, strawberries, cherries are grown in abundance in Pwin oo lwin, known as the Cherry capital.
There are tomato farms in Inle Lake and Tomato salad is an must try here. Other common salads are Seaweed and carrot salad, tea leaf salad.
Burmese love tea salads. No other country consumes tea leaves in meals like the Burmese do.
Most restaurants serve Vegetarian fried rice, Fried noodles with vegetables and steam rice with vegetables.
These are easy and quicker options for vegetarians and are served with black soy sauce and chopped garlic and cost approx 2000-2500 Kyat.
The best vegetarian fried rice I had during my Myanmar trip was at the Green Tea restaurant at Pindaya.
Traditional restaurants serve a thali where rice is served with a variety of vegetables. The main compartment is filled with steam rice and other compartments include vegetables, condiments and fritters. The condiments are fried peanuts, crushed coconut and dried chillies.
Vegetables include Marrow curry, Stir-fried grout curry, Stir fired Pokchoy and mushrooms, Bean curd curry, Potato, and bean gravy, Cheese and Tofu stew, Eggplant and black bean, Chickpea curry.
Burmese food isn’t spicy: Most of their cuisine is infused with coconut and banana. But even the sweets are not too sweet. Everything is balanced and yes, flavorsome.
Burmese love their tea: Walk around in the streets of Myanmar and find tiny, unpretentious tea houses dishing out cups of Burmese tea, made out of condensed milk and served in tiny white cups.
Laiphet ( tea with condensed milk) is usually served with mildly sweet pancakes.
Bagan and its love affair with Tamarind: Bagan is famous for its tamarind and jaggery sweet called ‘tamarind flakes’. These are melt in the mouth layers and make for ideal souvenirs to take back home.
All over Bagan, loose tamarind candies are sold by vendors.
Street food is cheap and offers tremendous variety.
Vegetarian snacks and starters are available by and large. Fried assorted snacks can be found at most of the street stalls. These include Rice dumplings, pancakes and the likes.
A definite must try is the Mont Lin Ma Yar ( rice pancakes made in round moulds, fried with oil and topped with chickpeas and onions). This literally translates into the ‘Husband and wife snack’ 😀
Starters include Fried Tempura, Rice Crackers.
Burmese desserts aren’t too sweet. Most restaurants serve Sago pudding, semolina cakes, pumpkin puddings and Banana cakes.
In-flight food is light and absolutely delectable: You are unlikely to get local food in your domestic flights in Myanmar. But because the duration is mostly less than 60 minutes, you are most likely to be served with sandwiches, smoothies and a bowl of fresh fruit.
Some of my favourite restaurants across Myanmar:
Little bit of Mandalay, Mandalay : This local restaurant serves authentic Burmese cuisine with focus on local dishes from Mandalay.
My meal consisted of Mock meat: Beans Athatu, Assorted mix veg (Thi sone nut ), sweet and sour yellow tofu (Tophu Chochin), Long bean salad ( Pe taung Shae thoe), Radish potato and carrot ( Thom myo a young chel ), Moong cake (Lah mont) a Mandalay delicacy.
Green Tea restaurant, Pindaya:
This restaurant near Pindaya caves offers a wonderful lake view and fabulous meals.
Karaweik Palace Restaurant, Yangon
A palace set up, with ornate interiors, buffet-style dinner with live traditional Burmese dance performances. Totally worth the Kyats you spend. Full post on this place coming soon.
So when are you traveling to Myanmar just for the food?
Make sure you have read about the Best in Myanmar before you head out.
P.S: You can safely ditch the Theplas! 🙂
P.S.S : A big thank you to my guide in Mandalay, Mr. Minn for helping me with the Burmese names:)
Oooh Divya, I love Veg Food and got hungry just reading your yummy, sorry, well written post !
Going to attack my food right away !
Thanks Glo 😀 Little Aastha likes that it made you hungry :p :p
Very useful and informative post Divsi! The photos are just awesome and look so inviting. I love the “husband-wife” snack, we make something similar in South India with idli batter! That is so cool:)
Thanks a lot Rashmi 🙂 Glad you liked the post! The snack reminded me of mini-uttappams:)
Yum, yum, yum and yum!! Fabulous post Divsi. I am sure this one’s going to tempt a lot of veggie folks to venture on a Burma trip. The dishes sound so unique and scrumptious, I am sure you had a great time trying them all out. This post will truly be a life-saver for vegetarian tourists.
Thank so much Kala 🙂 I will be truly glad if it helps fellow veggies 😀
Wow, seems like I don’t have to worry a bit when I plan to travel there.
Some dishes are making me crave for them right now. 😊
Hehe. Absolutely not. Too much variety, all you need is the will to experiment 😀
That I agree with 😊
Totally agree, vegetarian food in Myanmar is amazing, especially the salads. We went to a different restaurant when we travelled to Pindaya Caves – it was lovely, but kind of wish we made it to Green Tea after reading your review!
The salads were life saviours 😀 Do visit Green tea whenever you go to Pindaya next.
Thanks Divya for this post on veg food in Myanmar. My friends who had been to Burma kept insisting that vegetarians would have a problem and to warn you guys. Glad I didn’t
Hehe! Thanks for not warning us and letting us experiment with all the varieties Doreen 🙂
the food looks very delicious thank you for sharing
🙂
This is indeed a survival guide for the vegetarians with you even mentioning the lines they need to say while searching for veg food. Though I’m a non-veg, but the pictures made me hungry… 😀 😛
There is a LOTTTT of variety for Non vegetarians!
Now this is a post for people like me – vegetarians ! Helpful and informative guide about finding food in Mayanmar. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for reading Atul 🙂
hard to believe that the country has to offer so many veg dishes. Keep sharing the pics
I was surprised too 🙂 Good for us veggies! thanks for reading!
Bookmarking this. It would come handy to me as I am a vegetarian. Read my post on “Survival Guide of A Veggie in Malaysia” in my blog.
Here it is : https://amitavadgupta.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/taste-of-malaysia-survival-guide-for-a-veggie/
Glad it would be useful! Thanks for reading 🙂
Really a mouth watering post! 🙂 Such gorgeous pictures of food and it’s all vegetarian. I know, they don’t understand that fish is not a vegetarian. Common problem in South east Asia as well. Never mind, the ‘lifeless’ word is going to save us. 😀
Very informative post Divsi, I’m keeping an eye on all your posts.
P.S.- Hope you have saved some candies and tamarind flakes for me. 🙂
Yay! Glad you liked it! 🙂 Yes ma’am, one packet saved for you 😀
More posts on Myanmar coming soon!
Ok I am just gonna collate your posts, take a bag and go off to Myanmar someday 😀 So much detail! Btw their food is so similar to the cuisine I had in Tripura! And the moong cake – I have had it in Odisha as well as West Bengal and I love it!!
Their food has many many Indian influences. A generous use of pulses:)
Whenever you pack your bags to go, let me know 🙂 😀
Such lovely pictures and this is one helpful post. I will recommend this very vegetarian traveling to Myanmar.
Sometimes, its very difficult to put across in the local language that you want no meat in the food.
You have explained it really well.
Thanks so much Manjulika! 🙂
Looks like a complete guide on Myanmar veg food, Divsi. So helpful. I know how tough it is for Indian vegetarians to find something to eat, while traveling abroad.
Thanks 🙂 most of them are sadly forced to only eat at Indian restros because of the lack of veg options!
Very informative post. But I loved your pics, absolutely gorgeous.
Thanks so much Sapna!
Wow! That food looks so tempting. Looks like you got everything possible and that’s so good. Isn’t it?
Another thing that caught my attention was that how local language helps us figure out things that would otherwise be hard. Good one there, D.
Wonderful write up and amazing pictures.
Similar to ” ask and you shall receive!” 🙂 hehe! The local Lang is a boon and a life saviour. People should at least know a few words. Thanks Parul! Glad you liked it!
Wow this food looks amazing and so foreign. Makes me think of how we usually eat mostly the same. I should seek out a Myanmar restaurant here in London. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
xx finja | http://www.effcaa.com
Ultimately you end up realising that we all may be very different, but still the same In many ways! 🙂
All these Burmese food looks so delicious! Being vegetarians our-self we totally understand your difficulties when you dont find anything good to eat while you are travelling! Booking this post for our future reference…:)
Hi five! 🙂 hope this would be useful on your trip!
The joys of being vegetarian and traveling 😀
Absolutely!
interesting and nice 🙂
🙂
oh gosh, this looks so wonderful – beautiful place and delicious food!
Thanks Indah! 🙂 Burma is beautiful!
WOW,that was an excellent collection of vegetarian fare,very helpful post
Thanks Anindita!
Those are useful tips. Surprised on their classification. Here, Vegetarian Fried Rice means it has eggs. Egg is vegetarian for most people in most of the countries.
There is a lot to choose from. I hope I travel there for food and its cultural heritage.
I always worry about traveling far east, because I am not sure that I will ever get vegetarian food there. This post was a revelation and a learning too!
Super images and great to know of these options – am always going hungry abroad!
Too good and lot of info for veggies like me
I’m surprised to see such amazing variety! Have always felt that vegetarian cuisine is so much more diverse than non-vegetarian and this post is a perfect example of that. Raw mango reminds me of Indian ambi.