My research is about the history of English in colonial Southeast Asia and I was in Myanmar last September to do research at the National Archives. During this trip I was fortunate to have had Li Ching who studies the traditional Burmese orchestra and Alice who studies Buddhist monuments with me. I always feel safe when I am in Burma (even when I am alone) but it is refreshing to have friends along to share a laugh with. My study is historical but on this trip, we gathered enough data to write a paper called “Burmese Food and the Romanization and Phonetization of the English Language.”

 

Here is a copy of our breakfast menu at the hotel:

 

Look at what comes with the rice porridge:

 

 

 

For lunch, look at number 4 and number 5 of the menu at a restaurant in the Chinatown area of Yangon:

 

 

Of course animal innards are common in Philippine cuisine and I am used to it but somehow when translated to English I am reminded of, rather than a mouth-watering dish, a painful medical procedure.

 

But I am sure the restaurant people meant well because this is the greeting I saw on the wall:

 

Look at number 7 of this menu. Despite the warning, we went ahead and had it for dinner.

 

After the Gon-Bad Chicken we headed of to Sandy’s, one of the nicest restaurants in Yangon to clean up our stomachs with item number 17 of the menu:

 

 

 

Here is a picture of Li Ching, Alice and myself at Sandy’s:

 

This is what we actually ate:

 

This is Mohinga (pronounced Mo-hing-ga) which is catfish soup with cilantro, lemon, chili, and your choice of tempura-like vegetables. It is Burma’s most popular dish. It doesn’t smell good but it tastes great.

 

 

This plate is so typically Burmese. As soon as you sit down at a table, they put this in front of you. Up north they give you two large platters of it and it is always free. The sauce on the middle is a shrimp paste but there are so many variations of it.

 

This is at Feel Restaurant which is about 200 meters from the Archives. I would have lunch there everyday.

 

 

No MacDonald’s, no Pizza Hut, no Dunkin Donuts, no KFC, no Starbucks for a month can actually be quite refreshing. So how do the Burmese manage to keep American franchises out of Myanmar? Look at this huge sign they put up facing the American embassy on Merchant Road in downtown Yangon. Number three reads: “Oppose all foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the state.” Number four reads: “Crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy.”

 

 

Apparently to stand up to the Americans you have to have your strong, hot colons.