10 Best Street Food You Must Try In Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)

street food in yangon
Demos
Demos 
Published
| 4 min read

Yangon is a modern Burmese metropolis that also happens to be the largest city in Myanmar. The city is filled with many attractive Buddhist temples, and its side streets are home to many vendors preparing and serving delicious snacks. These energetic street vendors work throughout the day, providing their customers with tasty treats such as mohinga, which is a traditional breakfast dish, samosa salad that’s crispy and healthy, and lephet thote that’s made from fermented tea leaves renowned for its strong aroma. Check out our amazing list of the 10 best street foods you must try in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), before heading to this fascinating city.

1. Mohinga

Mohnga
Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Charles Haynes used under CC BY-SA 2.0

One of the most delicious and popular Myanmar delicacies is Mohinga, which is a traditional dish that’s served for breakfast or dinner. While there are several variations of this dish across Burma, it’s usually served piping hot in a bowl and consists of bean broth, fish, rice noodles, and peppers that are carefully stirred. If you’re visiting Yangon and frequenting its many exotic eateries, you’ll find that the locals also order a fried egg to go together with their Mohinga.

Visited this place?

2. Dosa sandwich

Dosa and ghee
Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Charles Haynes used under CC BY-SA 2.0

Yangon’s a cheap destination, and you’ll find that’s especially true when it comes to the cost of eating out. For only a few pennies, you can treat yourself to a mouthwatering dosa sandwich, which is essentially a folded pancake and healthier than most other street foods. A typical savory dosa consists of beans, bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, pancake base, oil, and tomatoes.

Visited this place?

3. Fried chickpea tofu

Burmese tofu (to hpu)
Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Wagaung used under CC BY-SA 3.0

Nowadays, many people are looking for healthier food alternatives, but without losing out on taste and texture. And for those that have done their homework, they find that Burmese chickpea tofu is the clear winner of healthy, tasty, and versatile street foods. One of its main ingredients, chickpea flour, is an amazing gluten-free flour that can be used in all kinds of delicacies such as crepes and fritters. But in this case, combine chickpea flour with corn starch, wheat starch, yellow split peas, and deep fry it to get delicious and crispy fried tofu that you’ll want to share with friends.

Visited this place?

4. Samosa salad

Samosa salad
Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Wagaung used under CC BY-SA 3.0

The samosa is a staple of Indian cuisine, but did you know that you could use it to make a delicious salad? Well, if you’re in Yangon, you’ll see street vendors preparing these tasty salads with crispy samosas as the main ingredients. They combine chopped tomatoes, garlic cloves, mint, peanut oil, roasted chickpea powder, pepper, salt, shallots, and shredded cabbage. The final result is a salad with a rich combination of flavors and texture.

Visited this place?

5. Shan noodles

Shan Noodle
Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Myominkyaw93 used under CC BY-SA 4.0

Shan noodles are yet another popular Burmese dish that’s not only a hit in Burma but also in China and Thailand. It’s another versatile dish that’s served as either a salad or a soup for breakfast or as a quick meal during the day. So, what makes it so delicious? Well, it consists of chili powder, chopped chicken or pork, crushed peanuts, garlic cloves, onions, tomato paste, scallions, sugar, soy sauce, and vegetable oil.

Visited this place?

6. Mont Lin Ma Yar

Posted by Yangon Food Tours on Tuesday, 2 July 2019

The street vendors in Yangon are a creative lot, and they always come up with interesting recipes and exciting snacks. Mont Lin Ma Yar, which means husband and wife snack, is a mouthwatering crispy delicacy that resembles a flattened cupcake that’s been fried. And, these little snacks are bustling with flavor due to their ingredients consisting of baking soda, butter beans, green onions, ground ginger, rice powder, salt, sugar, and water. They’re always prepared on a hot pan, and the vendor will carefully apply the butter beans, oil, and water during the frying process.

Visited this place?

7. Street pancakes

ဘိန္းမုန္႔ (သို႔မဟုတ္) Burmese Pancake ဘိန္းမုန္႔ဆုိတာနဲ႔ လူတိုင္းၾကိဳက္ၾကမယ္ထင္တယ္…..နယ္ဘက္မွာေတာ႔...

Posted by MyLann on Saturday, 7 May 2016

As you make your way down those bustling side streets of Yangon during the mornings, you’ll come across the street vendors preparing all kinds of interesting snacks. You’ll find both savory and sugary options, and sometimes you’ll feel in the mood for the latter. In that case, you should order the delicious street pancakes that consist of a fluffy exterior that has nuts and seeds, while the interior filling consists of either banana, coconut, or egg.

Visited this place?

8. Burmese chicken salad

Myanmar is well known for its flavorful salads. Our house special chicken salad is not different: fried chicken with...

Posted by Burma Ruby on Saturday, 3 September 2016

Chicken is a popular ingredient in many Burmese dishes, and that includes salads. Burmese chicken salad doesn’t taste like your typical chicken salad since crispy ingredients that are rich in texture set it apart. These include cabbage, chickpea flour, cilantro, cucumber, fish sauce, garlic chips, jalapeño peppers, lime juice, rotisserie chicken, and yellow onions. With all these wholesome and tasty ingredients, it shouldn’t surprise that this salad is brimming with flavor.

Visited this place?

9. Kyay-Oh

Kyay Oh
Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Mydaydream89 used under CC BY-SA 3.0

Kyay-Oh doesn’t originate from Burma but China, yet it’s a spicy dish that’s enjoyed by the locals in Yangon. To the untrained eye, it may seem like a typical spaghetti dish, but it’s far more than that. It consists of chicken or pork bones, fish balls, garlic cloves, mustard leaf, oyster sauce, quail egg, pepper, pig intestines, salt, sugar, spring onion, soy sauce, tofu, and Vermicelli noodles. Then, the dish is served piping hot with a seasoned broth that helps enhance its overall flavor and aroma.

Visited this place?

10. Lephet thote

Laphet thoke
Source: Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Wagaung used under CC BY-SA 3.0

Lephet thote sounds incredibly exotic, and it is, as it’s a fermented tea leaf salad that boasts a strong aroma. And, in many eastern countries, including Burma, fermented tea leaves act as a symbol of hospitality when served to guests. It consists of a wide range of ingredients such as cabbage, cilantro, chili peppers, garlic cloves, garlic oil, fermented tea leaves, fried garlic, fish sauce, ginger, lime juice, roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, sugar, vegetable oil, and yellow split peas. The final result is a sumptuous salad that should be shared with friends and family.

Visited this place?

A city filled with rich flavors

If you’re seeking that exotic and sumptuous snack, then you won’t be disappointed with what you’ll find in Yangon. Not only will you come across street vendors serving delicious and healthy snacks, but many of these are reasonably priced, making them a good option if you’re traveling on a budget.

Visited this place?
Any must-sees we missed? Tell us about them in the comments section or write a post here to help out fellow travelers!
Disclosure: Trip101 selects the listings in our articles independently. Some of the listings in this article contain affiliate links.

History


Get Trip101 in your inbox

Unsubscribe in one click. See our Privacy Policy for more information on how we use your data

Demos, a freelance writer, boasts an entrepreneurial background that informs his diverse writing portfolio. His articles span across various topics, encompassing travel, business, technology,...Read more

 Want to contribute as a Local Expert?
Explore Yangon
x
Good things are meant to be shared!
Back to top
Visited any of these places? Click this button to activate our "Add a Tip" feature to share your experience.