| Food for Thought
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| Talking and writing, Not cooking
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| I never did realize the
truth of the saying, "He who can does; he who cannot teaches," until I started
writing articles on food. Before it is too late, I must confess that I only
like collecting recipes and enjoying the dishes others cook and of course,
talking and writing about them.
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| Next to eating, talking
or writing about food is one of the most enjoyable pleasures of life. I like to
inspire people to create toothsome delicacies by telling them how tasty a
certain food is, and how easy it is to make.
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| Don't you dare say, it is
propaganda; because it takes a consummate artist to make mouths water by a
picturesque description of the goodies and make people run to the market to buy
the stuff and to be back in the kitchen to cook.
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| One thing about the
Myanmar rice meal is that it can be simple . . . . . just cooked rice and a
dish of sesamum oil and salt or a sumptuous one with curries and relishes.
There is a way for lazy cooks to arrange a makeshift meal; just cook the rice
and run to the street corner and by gourd fritters or ba-yar-gyaw, peas soaked
in water and pounded into paste and fried deep in hot oil.
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| Fritters and crispies
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| These fritters and
crispies are sold together with lettuce leaves, spring onions and a sauce made
of tamarind pulp and crushed chillies and garlic. You dip a bite size bit of
the crispie in the sauce and put it in the morsel of rice and top it with
lettuce leaf and spring onion. Then chase down the mouthful with hot plain
green tea.
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| There are two varieties
of ba-yar-gyaw. . . . the one made of yellow lentils and the other made of
matpe, small round peas. The matpe crispie is much tastier then the one made of
yellow lentils.
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| Matpe crispie is an Upper
Myanmar product and some years ago it was not available in delta towns like
Yangon. Even though it is sold in crispie kiosks here, those of Upper Myanmar
towns like Mandalay are far more tasty (That's an Upper Myanmar speaking!)
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| To me this matpe crispie
is associated with happy memories. Decades ago, long before the Inwa bridge was
built, we made a boat trip from Sagaing (the town on the other side of the
river opposite Mandalay) to Mingun, where the great bell is.
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| We left in the small
hours of the morning when a heavy November mist hung low on the wide brimming
waters of the Ayeyarwady. We huddled in the sampan, a flat-bottomed boat and
dozed. As the sun's rays broke through the mist, we saw small sandy islets
interlaced with rippling waters.
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| On some of those islands
we saw palm-leaf huts brested with curls of filigree smoke and what is more,
the smell of deep frying crispies stole into our nostrils.
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| Snacks on the sandy isles on the Ayeyarwady
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| By unanimous consent our
boat was moored to the sand bank. We had fun paddling in the shallow water, it
was just deep enough to reach our knees. It was wonderful to be able to have a
paddly pool right in the middle of the wide river. We played until the
grown-ups called us to have our morning meal.
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| We had, of course, matpe
crispies straight out of the sizzling oil, and there was yeimohn, which is a
kind of pan-cake made by spreading rice batter over the heated griddle. It was
sprinkled over with peas and shredded spring onions. These pan-cakes go well
with crispies.
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| By the way, you might see
similar pan-cakes here in Yangon, but not exactly the same; they are fried
crisp. The real yeimohn is not fried; it is just spread over the griddle and
pasted with oil so that it is soft and pliant like a piece of cloth. It melts
in the mouth.
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| I wonder if they still
have those huts on the islets which festooned the Ayeyarwady river in the
months of November, December, Much as I wanted to, I never had a chance to go
boating along the river and have a go at paddling on the sand pools this time
with my grand-children, and enjoy those crispies and pan-cakes.
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| The matpe crispies here
are not as good as those sold on the sandy islets. Something is lacking, maybe,
it is those palm leafhuts, paddling in the pools, and all the things that once
went with the crispies. Maybe, but no, let's face it, it is YOUTH, that is
sadly lacking.
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