Mohinga

Mohinga is rice vermicelli in fish soup and considered by many to be the national dish of Myanmar. It is readily available in most parts of the country. In major cities, street hawkers and roadside stalls sell dozens of dishes of mohinga to the locals and passers-by. Although mohinga is available throughout the day, it is usually eaten as breakfast.

There are different varieties of mohinga in various regions of Myanmar such as Rakhine mohinga with more fish paste and less soup. Its ingredients depend on their availability. However, the standard dish comes from southern Myanmar, where fresh fish is more readily available. The main ingredients of mohinga are chickpea flour and/or crushed toasted rice, garlic, onions, lemongrass, banana tree stem, ginger, fish paste, fish sauce and catfish in a rich broth cooked and kept on the boil in a cauldron. It is served with rice vermicelli, dressed and garnished with fish sauce, a squeeze of lime, crisp fried onions, coriander, spring onions, crushed dried chilli and, as optional extras, crispy fried fritters such as split chickpeas, urad dal (baya gyaw) or gourd (bu thee gyaw) as well as boiled egg and fried fish cake (nga hpè gyaw)

It is perhaps the most popular breakfast dish of all, now available as an "all-day breakfast" in many towns and cities. Mohinga is also served with all the trimmings at formal functions and nowadays it is also sold in dry packets as a ready-made powder that is used for making the broth.

Street hawkers are the original purveyors of this popular dish doing the rounds through neighborhoods where they have regular customers. They carry the soup cauldron on a stove on one side of a shoulder pole and rice vermicelli and other ingredients along with bowls and spoons on the other. Trishaw peddlers began to appear in the 1960s and some of them set up pavement stalls making mohinga available all day. Finally cafes and restaurants also added mohinga to their menus.