Where to eat in Yangon to try Myanmar’s diverse ethnic cuisine – a must for adventurous foodies
- Spicy, sour, bitter, sweet – sometimes all in the same dish – Myanmar’s diverse ethnic cuisines come together in Yangon
- From chicken roasted in a clay mound and influences from Chinese cuisine, not all Myanmar eateries serve over-the-top chilli dishes
At a charming Kayan restaurant overlooking Yangon’s Pazundaung Creek, the waiter uses a cleaver to crack open a clay mound. He extracts a bamboo-wrapped chicken, dripping in its own juices. It’s been roasted over coals for eight hours – a way of cooking that Kayan people developed for their overnight hunting trips. When they return to camp, the chicken is ready to eat.
Myanmar is divided into 14 states and regions with more than 135 ethnic groups. Fresh ingredients from Rakhine’s coasts, Kayah’s forests and Kachin’s mountains are used in the distinct ethnic cuisines.
But outside Myanmar, you’d be hard-pressed to find an immigrant-owned Burmese restaurant that serves something other than Bamar (Burmese) or Shan food, the two largest ethnic groups. If you are in Yangon, however, you can get a taste of Kayan, Kachin, Mon and Rakhine culture without visiting these far-flung locales.
“The hunters use clay so the heat is evenly and slowly distributed. It keeps the monkeys from devouring it, too,” says Zay Yar Min, owner of Vista Do Rio Kayan restaurant.
Native to the Mandalay region, Min spent two years researching and cooking with villagers in Kayah State. Soon after he returned to Myanmar in 2013, his wife returned from Loikaw with the city’s famous Kayah pork sausage. Min says Aung San Suu Kyi was often publicised eating ethnic food in public, encouraging citizens to diversify their palate.
“Her words were a driving force for us,” says Min. Because Kayan food did not exist in Yangon, he opened Vista Do Rio.