Myanmar

A slow-cooked Burmese chicken dish built on a deeply fried onion-garlic-ginger paste, heavy turmeric, peanut oil, and fish sauce, distinguished from all neighboring curry traditions by the complete absence of coconut milk and the mandatory oil-separation technique that defines Burmese curry cookery.

A Burmese tossed salad built around wet-fermented tea leaves (lahpet) combined at table with an array of fried garlic, roasted nuts, seeds, dried shrimp, fresh tomato, and lime — eaten as snack, palate cleanser, or social offering.

A Burmese salad of finely shredded pickled or fresh ginger tossed with fried garlic, peanuts, toasted sesame, dried shrimp and lime for a bright, crunchy, pungent mix.

A Burmese stir-fried rice made from day-old rice tossed with egg, onion, and a light seasoning of soy and oil as an everyday household staple.

A Burmese (Shan/Intha) dish of lightly fermented, tomato-tinted rice pressed into balls or mounds and served with toppings such as peanuts, fried garlic oil, and ngapi fish relish.

A Burmese clear pork or chicken broth simmered with glass noodles, offal, fish balls, and pork, traditionally served and reheated in a copper pot.

A Burmese salad built on laphet — soft, fermented tea leaves — tossed with fried garlic, roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, dried shrimp, fresh tomato, and crispy fried legumes, delivering a singular bitter-sour-umami profile found in no other cuisine.

A Mandalay rice-noodle dish dressed in a pork-and-tomato sauce, brightened with pickled mustard greens and an array of toppings.

Myanmar's national breakfast dish: a lightly thickened, lemongrass-and-banana-stem catfish broth ladled over fine rice vermicelli and finished tableside with crispy split-pea fritters, hard-boiled egg, and lime.

A Rakhine (Arakanese) Burmese dish of thin rice noodles served in or with a pungent broth built on fermented fish paste (ngapi) and dried shrimp.

A Burmese (especially Rakhine) dish of rice noodles in a rich fish-based gravy, dressed with banana stem, chickpea flour, and coriander.

A Burmese street snack of two rice-batter half-spheres cooked in a dimpled iron mold and pressed together — one savory with quail egg, one sweet with coconut — to form a single round 'couple'.

A Burmese noodle salad of thick round rice noodles tossed with chicken curry, toasted chickpea (gram) flour, and aromatics.

Ngapi Yay is a Burmese pungent dipping sauce made by simmering and seasoning fermented fish or shrimp paste (ngapi) with garlic, chilli, and lime, served with raw and blanched vegetables.

A Burmese dish of wheat or egg noodles in a coconut-milk chicken broth, thickened with chickpea flour and topped with crisp garnishes including fritters.

A Burmese prawn dish in which prawns are cooked down with turmeric, onion, tomato, and fermented fish paste (ngapi) into a savory oil-slicked curry.

A dense Burmese baked cake of semolina cooked with coconut milk and finished with sesame seeds and raisins, essential to celebrations.

A Burmese Shan dish of flat rice noodles dressed or served in a mild tomato-and-pork sauce, topped with seasoned minced pork and crushed peanuts.

A soft, soy-free tofu of the Shan people made by setting cooked chickpea (or yellow split pea) flour batter, served warm or cold with an oily, turmeric- and chilli-spiked dressing.