Vegetarian Blues
What happens when a vegetarian craves meat
A Myanmar Favorite - River Prawns
Pyai looked longingly at the heaping plate of giant fried prawns brought crispy hot to the table. It had been a long, hot day on the road from Yangon to the Ayeyarwady Delta coastal region. We had given the fried cricket snacks a miss and were ready for a real meal.
“I miss prawns the most,” said Pyai, our interpreter. The coastal area is famous for fresh and abundant seafood and passing the plate of six-inch prawns, “Have some, take all you want … this is too much food for Glen and me.”
“I am supposed to be a vegetarian. My husband is a strict vegetarian and does not even eat eggs or milk. This is very hard for my daughter because she is only four years old, so I buy her cheese. Sometimes I really miss chicken and beef, but mostly I think about prawns.”
Omnivore that I am, I handled this delicate situation the best I could. “What happens on the road, stays on the road. Your choice, but we will never eat all these prawns, basil chicken or even spring rolls for that matter,” and passed her a pair of wooden chopsticks from the napkin canister on the table.
Are tea leaves addictive? Because I started craving Burmese fermented tea salad. Sounds gross. Tastes great.
Pyai speared prawns and chicken onto her plate and after the first mouthful said, “It is even better than I remembered. You are welcome also to my rice and vegetables,” and turned all her attention to the food at hand.
From then on Pyai did the ordering, with rapid-fire instructions to the waiters for no MSG, rice noodles instead of wheat, and cuts of chicken that we could recognize. Our rail-thin interpreter ate platefuls with gusto, taking leftovers back to her room as a bedtime snack. I don’t know if the extra protein jump-started her hunger, but it was amazing to see how much she could eat. On the road a typical breakfast started with a large bowl of rice noodles and eggs or chicken and a chaser plate of fruit and sticky rice. Lunch and dinner in Myanmar are serious multi-course meals served in small dishes with a bowl of rice at the center.
Dinner for two - the noodles are off to the side
Traveling the countryside has broadened our cultural discovery of Myanmar: impromptu stops at roadside food stalls (“it’s organic”), lottery ticket kiosks (our driver had a dream he would win) and home-made sticky rice dessert factory (with gummy samples) where goods are baked and sold onsite. I don’t know where Myanmar people put all the food they eat, but a healthy appetite is a good thing and we are lucky to be able to experience backroads Myanmar.