Mont di

Mont di(Burmese:မုန့်တီ,romanized:mun. ti[mo̰ʊɰ̃tì]) is a collective term for Burmese dishes made withthin rice noodles. The vermicelli is used fresh, as it ferments quickly in Myanmar's tropical climate. There are a number ofmont didishes, and theRakhinemont diof theArakanesefrom westernMyanmaris the most popular.Mandalaymont diis another well-known dish. A handful of regional rice vermicelli dishes, such asMawlamyaingmohingaandKengtungkhao sen, are also interchangeably called "mont di."
All the variants ofmont diare often accompanied byBurmese fritters(အကြော်), of one's choice.
Rakhinemont di(Burmese:ရခိုင်မုန့်တီ) is the most popular dish, closely associated with theRakhine people. It is a semi-staple dish of Rakhine State. It comes in two forms: salad or soup.
The soup is the more common version, in which rice vermicelli is mixed with a thin soup made ofdaggertooth pike conger, calledthinbaw htoe(သင်္ဘောထိုး) in Arakanese,nga shwe(ငါးရွှေ) in Burmese), Rakhinengapiandlemongrass. Dry roasted pike conger eel flakes, fried onion and garlic, fresh coriander, red and green chili paste are added. It is also calledarpu sharpu(အာပူလျှာပူ,lit.'hot throat, hot tongue'), due to the green chili paste. Some add fried pulverisednga pheandpork rind.
In the dry salad form, the same ingredients are mixed into a colourful combination. The green chili paste gives the white rice vermicelli a slight greenish hue.
Mandalaymont di(Burmese:မန္တလေးမုန့်တီ), also callednan gyi thoke(နန်းကြီးသုပ်), is quite different from Rakhinemont di. It uses meat instead of marine fish, asMandalayis an inland city located in Central Myanmar. The noodles used are thick round rice noodles callednan gyi. The meat is cooked as a sauce and added to the noodles like a salad (in some recipes only). Many authentic shops uses a variation ofchickpea flourand its different flavoured oils to bring about its unique Mandalay flavours. Mostmont dishops will prepare the dish based on the customers' preferences for specific tastes and offers the option of "mixing" (tossing) it for the customer.
Daweimont di(ထားဝယ်မုန့်တီ), also known asDawei mont let thoke(ထားဝယ်မုန့်လတ်သုပ်), is a specialty ofDaweiin Southern Myanmar.The dish consists ofthreadfin fishor catfish boiled in fermentedtoddy palmjuice and coconut milk, served with rice vermicelli, and garnished with hand-crushedmurukku.
Khotaungmont di(ခိုတောင်မုန့်တီ) is a well-knownBurmese noodle saladoriginating from the small village of Khotaung inSagaing Region.The salad uses thick rice noodles (also used innan gyi thoke) andfish balls, mixed with chopped cabbage, green beans, pickled radish,chickpea flour,garlic oil, with optional toppings, includingBurmese fritters,jengkol, andfish cake.The dish is typically accompanied with a light broth made from fish balls andfish head.The origins of the dish date to theKonbaung dynasty. One ofMindon Min's pregnant queens once had a craving for worms.Khotaung villagers, in response, dressed thick rice noodles with garlic oil, which eventually became Khotaungmont di.
Taungoomont di(တောင်ငူမုန့်တီ) is a specialty from the town ofTaungoo. It is a rice vermicelli salad served with a thinmohingabroth, raw tomatoes and green beans,Burmese chickpea fritters, and fried garlic.
Yangonmont di(Burmese:ရန်ကုန်မုန့်တီ) is very similar to the Rakhinemont di. The only difference is that oil is added to the salad, reflecting the Burmese preference for oiliness.
During the 1700s, the influx ofAyutthayansfollowing theBurmese–Siamese warsto Mandalay also created an infusion Central Thai-inspired dishes, one of which is known asYodayamont di(ယိုးဒယားမုန့်တီ,lit.'Ayutthayan mont ti'). The rice noodle dish usesfishas the main protein instead of chicken, and is prepared using slivers of curled rice vermicelli strands (khanom chin) tossed in aturmeric-infused oil, and served with friedonionsand rawgreen beans.A unique rendition of Yodayamont di, served with bean flour, dried shrimps, and a thicker gravy, can be found in Mandalay's Minthazu ward.