| More Off-beat Myanmar Foods
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| High status delicacy - to some
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| All countries have
special kinds of food that need cultivated taste. That is to say, it is the
kind of food the uninitiated may forget the social graces and turn away from,
wrinkling her nose at the funny smell.
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| In the West too, there
are certain foods, a high status delicacy to some, but to others, well-er-not
quite. Such foods usually involve too much preparation for wide scale
commercial production and too perishable to travel. Consequently they stay
strictly within the circle of local gourmets, not well known to `outsiders.'
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| One of the delicacies of
Lower Myanmar or delta regions is fish sour and prawn sour. This food like
Colommiers Demisel the hundreds of soft cheeses will not travel and therefore
it is best eaten on location.
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| The season for this
`sour' is the last weeks of the monsoon and throughout the cold season. `Prawn
sour' is often preferred to `fish sour,' because the taste and quality of the
latter depends on the kind of fish it is made of.
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| Many varieties of fish-sour
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| There are many varieties
of `fish sour'; one of them the common and the most available kind is made of
small fresh water fish. It is mixed with boiled rice and made into big lumps or
packed in leaves. The big lumps are sliced and sold by the weight. The packed
ones axe favoured by the fastidious and hygiene-conscious people.
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| The best kinds of
`fish-sour' are nga -phe and nga-gyin. Nga-gyin-chin is made of chunks of white
fish. Nga -phe-chin is tastier and it needs a more com plicated process:
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| To make nga phe-chin the
flesh is scraped from nga phe, white fresh water herring and the stuff is
pounded to right consistency; it is then mixed with boiled rice and a dash of
salt. The mixture is then moulded into `cutlets' and packed in green banana
leaves.
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| In Yangon markets,
especially those near the waterfront, fish sour and prawn sour come straight
from the steamers plying the delta towns. They are usually fresh and nice.
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| Fish sour and prawn sour
are also available in Bago, an hour and a half drive from Yangon. They are
neatly packed in green banana leaves and they have labels to tell you the date
when it will `ferment sour' enough to be eaten.
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| Can be eaten raw
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| One of the beauties of
this kind of `sour foods,' is that they can be eaten raw, garnished with
shredded onions, garlic, celery and lemon leaves and a dash of cooking oil.
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| If liked, they can be
`fried', that is, simmer shredded onions and garlic in heated oil over the fire
and add fish or prawn sour. Serve immediately with the usual gamishes of celery
and lemon leaves. Green chillies may be added if you like it hot.
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| It is a pity that the
best kind of `fish sour' and `prawn sour' are not easily available here in
Yangon. If you have relatives or friends in one of those delta towns, you just
cajole them into sending you packets of this delicacy periodically.
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| Fish or prawn prepared in
a special way is eaten raw in other lands too. Japanese and Scandinavians have
similar foods. From the little I know of them, one thing is certain; one has to
cultivate the taste for them, especially their smell!
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