Anyhow, after a prolonged absence due largely to internet-related issues, I did my first broadcast in 7 months yesterday, on what is arguably Burma’s most famous dish – Mohinga, or Monhinga. Lag times and uneven audio aside, it went well.

4-min highlights with instructions –

The full length broadcast with detailed instructions –

As mentioned in the broadcast, this was a collaboration with Soe Thein, a talented Burmese medical student based in the USA, who blogs at www.limeandcilantro.com – I was very intrigued by his posts on Google+ and reached out to him about contributing a recipe for my next show and he was very kind to oblige.

As a transplanted Southeast Asian food lover, Soe has had to learn to cook his favourite dishes from his home country, while adapting the recipes to use ingredients available to him in his new setting. This is something I can completely relate with, and I especially appreciate that his ingredients and terms are US-based. My own audience is predominantly North American and I know I confuse the hell out of you all when I get carried away talking about belacan and ikan bilis and what-not.

Preamble aside, I need to point out that thanks to some great product samples I received from the Malaysian Ministry of Agriculture some months back, I ended up adapting the recipe during the broadcast to use them instead of going to the trouble of buying turmeric and ginger etc. You’ll see what I mean if you watch the video.

Here are the ingredients used in my version of the recipe, and Soe’s recipe follows below that:

Baby Noah eats Mohinga

Soe’s ingredients list:

• 1 medium-sized tilapia (cleaned, gutted and scaled)
• 3 medium-sized yellow onion (chop one and thickly sliced the other 2)
• 1 cup of toasted rice flour
• 5 stalks of lemongrass
• 5 slices of ginger (about 1/8” thick)
• 5 big cloves of garlic (minced)
• 2 teaspoons of paprika
• 2 teaspoons of turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 5 quarts of water
• ½ cup of vegetable oil
• ¼ cup of fish sauce
• Eggs, cilantro (Coriander) and garlic oil for garnish

For full written steps on how to cook this, visit Soe’s blog post at http://www.limeandcilantro.com/2015/10/my-last-meal-on-earth-monhinga.html

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