Food from All Around Myanmar
Sunday, December 21st, 2008Excerpts taken from An Introduction to Myanmar Cuisine by Ma Thanegi, a wonderful Burmese cookbook that we highly recommend:
Our food culture is based on sharing: with monks to whom many of the Buddhist Myanmar offer food on a daily basis and on special occasions called Soon Kyway and sharing lunchboxes among school friends or colleagues at work. Food and drink are offered free on special religious days in a ritual known as S’du Di Thar. Travelers stopping by a village would be welcomed to share a meal at the monastery if not at someone’s house. It gives not only joy but great merit to feed others with a generous heart, and this Buddhist concept rules the social life of the people.