Mont Di

Mont Di

Rakhine Mont Di salad with garnish
Origin
Alternative name(s)	မုန့်တီRakhine Mont Di, Mandalay Mont Di
Place of origin	Myanmar
Region or state	Rakhine State, Mandalay Region
Dish details
Course served	Breakfast, Lunch
Main ingredient(s)	rice vermicelli, Daggertooth pike conger, ngapi, lemongrass, red chili sauce, green chili paste, crisp garlic garnish, coriander

Mont Di (Burmese: မုန့်တီ, pronounced [mo̯uɴ tì]) is a collective term for dishes made with thin rice noodles. Mont Di vermicelli are used fresh, as it ferments quickly in Myanmar's tropical climate. There are a number of Mont Di dishes in Burmese cuisine but Rakhine Mont di of the Arakanese of western Myanmar is the most popular. Mandalay Mont Di is another well known dish.

Variations

Rakhine Mont Di

Rakhine Mont Di (Burmese: ရခိုင်မုန့်တီ) is the most popular dish in association with the Rakhine people and is a semi staple dish of Rakhine State. It comes in two forms, as either salad or soup.

The soup is the more common version, in which rice vermicelli is mixed with a thin soup made of Daggertooth pike conger (called Thinbaw Htoe in Arakanese, Nga shwe in Burmese ^[1]), Rakhine ngapi and lemongrass. Dry roasted pike conger eel flakes, fried onion and garlic, fresh coriander, red and green chili paste are added. It is also called Arpu Sharpu which roughly means 'hot throat, hot tongue', due to the green chili paste. Some add fried pulverised nga phe and pork rind.

In the salad form, the soup is served separately, while the same ingredients are mixed into a more colourful combination. The red chili paste and oil gives the white rice vermicelli the yellow colour.

Mandalay Mont Di

Mandalay Mont Di (Burmese: မန္တလေးမုန့်တီ) is quite different from Rakhine Mont Di. It uses meat instead of marine fish, as Mandalay is an inland city located in Central Myanmar. The meat is cooked as a sauce and added to the noodles like a salad. Another difference is that larger rice noodles is used instead, similar to Nan gyi thoke.

See also

• Cuisine of Burma
• Nan gyi thohk
• Ohn no khao swe
• Meeshay
• Rakhine Inspired Burmese Dishes

Reference

1. ^ http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=8nhfSFs79fUC&lpg=PA220&ots=HCltzaOjty&dq=nga%20shwe%20fish&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q=nga%20shwe%20fish&f=false