Burma: coastal cuisine retains its spice despite the war

The civil war ravages crops and causes hunger in western Burma, but restaurateurs work hard to preserve local flavors, which have become a shield against homesickness for displaced people.

“Seeing my customers savor the food until the plate is empty gives me incomparable joy,” Yee Yee Kyaw, who moved his restaurant from Rakhine State to Yangon, the country’s largest city, tells AFP in 2024.

Bordered by Bangladesh to the north and landlocked between sea and mountains, Rakhine is almost entirely controlled by rebels from ethnic minorities.

It has been the subject of a military blockade and violent fighting along its border since the start of the civil war triggered by the 2021 coup.

More than a third of households there suffer from food insecurity, according to the World Food Program, while the cost of an average basket recently jumped by 30% because of the war in the Middle East.

Rice cultivation withered and fishing along the coast in the Bay of Bengal was also hampered by the war.

Traditional cuisine now often takes a back seat to the struggle for daily subsistence, but at Mrauk-U, May Pu Chay champions its unique dishes, often seasoned with spicy fish paste and crushed chili peppers.

“Rakhine food is the best. I would like it to spread, for everyone to taste it,” says this 51-year-old housewife, whose enthusiasm sometimes clashes with reality.

“We suffer,” she admits, when the harvests from her vegetable garden are too meager. “If there is nothing to cook, we don’t cook.”

– “Un patrimoine à préserver” –

Conger eel – a sea eel – and rice noodles are the main ingredients of the iconic Rakhine dish, “mont di”, which Yee Yee Kyaw serves generously in Yangon, seasoned with tamarind, garlic and chilli.

Spice levels vary and a portion costs up to 3,500 kyats (0.70 euros) depending on the choice of protein: fried beans, pork or fish cakes.

The 27-year-old woman serves around 200 bowls a day in her establishment with around thirty seats, where she continues to cook in the tradition of her home state.

“We tried to keep the same flavor as in Sittwe, but everything is different in a new place,” says the restaurateur, who sometimes struggles to find the right ingredients in the markets of Rangoon, 500 kilometers from her home.

The civil war and humanitarian crisis in Rakhine have forced nearly half a million people to move, according to UN statistics, and many have reached the economic capital.

“Eating our noodles helps people soothe homesickness,” said Yee Yee Kyaw, whose majority of customers come from Rakhine.

Elsewhere in the city, chef Ni Ni Aung runs a bustling canteen, also moved two years ago.

Its most popular dish – a generous pot of chunks of fatty pork bathed in spicy oil – suits the tastes of Yangon’s locals, but its pride is in Rakhine specialties.

“I prefer to cook for others rather than eat for myself,” says this 46-year-old restaurateur. “Local cuisine is a heritage to be preserved.”