Minglabar!
Last month, Nilar accompanied our staff, for a walking food tour of Yangon, with Sa Ba Street Food Tours, run by Marc Shortt.
"Sa Ba" in Burmese means "please eat" and you hear locals use this phrase often. Marc, one of the Sa Ba founders, used to work as a professional chef in France, before moving to Myanmar the second time. Having lived here previously, he missed Yangon so much, that he returned, to start Sa Ba Street Food Tours.
At the beginning of the tour itself, we were told that apart from food, our evening would include culture, and history too. The tour began at the Immanuel Baptist Church, near Sule Pagoda, from where we walked through little India and ended at China town. Unlike London or New York or any other big city, where you find demarcated neighborhoods, in Yangon, all cultures, religions and ethnicities blend into one another. Therefore, this food tour was more than just Yangon street food: it was about Myanmar and all the influences and culture that make this beautiful country. Food here is a marriage of different cuisines: Indian, Chinese, Persian, Bamar, Shan and many others.
Now about the food: we kicked of the tour with the most popular dish in Burmese cuisine: “Mohinga” at the Maha Bandoola Park street. Though Mohinga is easily available all over Myanmar, the one Sa Ba offered us was truly delicious. It had all the required ingredients: boiled cat fish, onions, garlic, fish paste (not featured), boiled banana stem, with extra toppings like lime, fried gourd, fried chick pea fritters, all crumbled to personalize your bowl.
The next stop was just around the corner: where we were introduced to Lan The Ye Mont, which looked like a fusion of the French crepe and the Indian dosa, bonded by an egg. It is topped with Burmese salad. It was very entertaining to see this crepe being made, and was highly instagramable. These were available in a sweet version too.
Falooda is something one shouldn’t miss in this tour. Made of yogurt, jelly, sago chia seeds among many other ingredients, this lip smacking ensemble did absolute justice to the word “dessert”.
An interesting aspect of Sa Ba Street Food Tour is that their guides not only treats you with the best of its kind, but also take thieir clients to the wet market for an introduction to the ingredients that are used to cook up these delicacies. We saw the wide variety of vegetables that are available in Myanmar, apart from different kinds of meat. We learnt the difference between farmed and free-range chicken. It was interesting to know that the locals are usually happy to pay double the price to get a free-range chicken, even though the chicken is smaller in size and less meaty. Did you also know that Myanmar has a vegetable called cat tongue, Kyaung Shar Thi, which is usually pickled or fried?
Through the tour, we also learnt about many other traditional street foods. In addition, Marc showed us some of his favorite spots to shop, and also taught us some special Myanmar food related words.
The highlight of the tour was planned for the end. Shan food, with all its varieties like fried chick-pea tofu, bbq fish and much more. We learnt that Shan food is much more than just Shan noodles. We had some special treats made with duck. It was very interesting to visit these family run food joints that have been in operation for over 50 years.
Having stuffed ourselves with such delectable food, we were ready to call it a day. While saying our goodbyes, Marc mentioned that Sa Ba had other such exciting tours as well like breakfast tours. Trishaw food tours and new cooking lessons. We thanked Marc for an informative cum tummy filling evening and promised to be back soon to join one of his other tours. For more info, check out their website, Instagram, Facebook and Tripadvisor
XX Hla Day
