Travels via food (4): Bagan via Shan Tofu

There are only a handful of countries that I have travelled to more than once, and Myanmar is one of them. I'm not exactly sure what drew me to Myanmar in the first place, possibly because military rule made it less popular than the other South East Asian countries. I first tried to go there in 2008, but was not allowed to cross the China-Myanmar land border as a foreigner. Then in 2014, I decided to go there the day after taking my final ICU exams - I figured whether I passed or failed it would be a good way to end that horrible time. Luckily I passed!

A week before I was due to leave, my friend Grace decided to join me on this trip. We first met working in a small rural hospital together in 2010. We love each other because we are both a bit alternative, and we both love food. She's always carrying around coloured pencils or sewing up something. I'm always working on the next food project...

We spent 10 days in Myanmar, following the "Golden Triangle" from Yangon to Mandalay to Bagan to Inle. Before we went to Myanmar, we had little idea of what we were going to do. Grace had picked up a bunch of school supplies (writing materials, exercise books etc) for an acquaintance who was working in orphanages in Myanmar. This acquaintance picked us up from the airport and gave us a dog-eared copy of the Lonely Planet Myanmar, which we read on our way to the train station to play our favourite game of "Where does the next train go?" 

We spent a few days in Mandalay and then headed to Bagan. This is the star tourist attraction of Myanmar as it has the reputation of being the "wild Angkor Wat". The real Angkor Wat in Cambodia has been well and truly overrun by tourists, but Bagan in 2014 was still pretty low key. Most tourists came in package tours and stayed in one of a handful of fancy hotels. In the old part of town, there were a few guesthouses catering to budget travellers like us. Old Bagan was a sleepy place with a few restaurants and tea houses - we even witnessed the opening of the very first ATM in Old Bagan while we were there, the glass booth tied up in a huge bow and the locals crowding around to see the ribbon cutting ceremony.   

There was only one small problem. Old Bagan was a good 6km from the temples, and we had no idea how to get there. The temperature was well over 30 and the sun was brutal, so walking seemed less than desirable. Most people got around on bicycles, but I don't know how to ride a bike. We didn't want to hire a tuk tuk to follow us around all day because we wanted flexibility. 

We pondered this problem till we saw some other backpackers zipping around on "E-bikes", a kind of cross between a bicycle and a scooter. There was even a tiny little rack at the back for your groceries, so surely I could sit on there right? 

We went to the E-bike rental shop and explained our situation. The man looked puzzled as most people preferred to rent individual bikes. He looked us both up and down a few times and decided the only way it would work is if I, as the larger person, rode the E-bike with Grace on the back. We explained again with mime that it would have to be the other way around, and the man shook his head, thinking it would be impossible for her small frame to balance with a load in the back.

After some charades and exchanges in broken English, the man reluctantly agreed to loan the bike to us on one condition - that we ride up and down the street, turn around and show him that we can at least do it safely. 

No problem! We cheered. 

Hopping on wasn't too bad. I sat on the uncomfortable rack, designed to hold no more than a head of celery, waving cheerfully at the man. Grace hopped on the front and we almost toppled over immediately. Righting ourselves as the man grimaced, we gently took off from the bike shop. We were on a tiny dusty road with hardly anyone around, so how hard could it be? 

It was a rather strange feeling as we gently started to accelerate. There was a tiny slant to the left, which seemed to exaggerate rapidly as we went forward. Seemingly in slow motion, we started to topple. The ground looked strangely close. First I heard the almighty noise, then I felt myself scraping on the ground. When I looked up, the bike had fallen into the ditch and Grace was a few metres away from me in a cloud of dust. The man from the shop came running up to us, shouting in Burmese. We had gone a comically short distance of perhaps 50m from the shop! 

Striking that option off the list, we decided to walk. I am pretty sure we got heatstroke that day, as the heat and humidity were bordering on unbearable. 

We saw some pretty cool temples though. Bagan was the capital of the Kingdom of Bagan during the 9th to 13th centuries, and over 3000 temples are left scattered across the region. Most of the temples are in the wild, hidden in the jungle and not maintained. These temples here were right in the middle of a vegetable field!

There has been a lot of criticism about the way the temples in Bagan have been restored. The region has been continuously inhabited since the demise of the Bagan kingdom but frequent earthquakes had caused a lot of damage to the temples. The military government tried to hastily restore Bagan to make it a tourist attraction, but little attention was paid to architectural styles and types of materials. Here is an example of crudely patched brick over delicate old sculptural details. 

Nevertheless, I felt an extreme attraction to these "wild" temples, which seemed very much undiscovered. Everywhere we turned, there were overgrown temples that locals still worshipped at. 

On that day we decided to walk around Bagan, we were utterly exhausted by the end of the day. We still faced the long 6km walk back along the busy main road. We were feeling miserable as there was no footpath and E-bikes zoomed past us constantly. Halfway back, a couple stopped and asked if we wanted a ride. It was incredibly generous of them to pick us up! They were from Vietnam and referred to each other as "brother" and "sister", which was a little odd. We went to a fancy restaurant for dinner and when we paid the bill, they insisted on treating us to dessert. The night got even stranger as we walked around Old Bagan looking for a place to have dessert. Finally we found a garish ice cream parlour, where the ice cream was like frozen lumps of ice. The kindness of strangers that you meet on the road really is one of the best things about travel.

Now onto the food. 

My history of adoration for Burmese food goes back to a small Burmese restaurant (incidentally called Bagan) in Strathfield I discovered when I was at university. I think I must have tried every salad there, and I thought it was a great cuisine for vegetarians. The real Myanmar isn't so great for vegetarians as pretty much everything was cooked with a little bit of meat or fish. 

Shan tofu was one of the staples that we ate while we were in Myanmar. Shan is a region in Myanmar, but this dish is eaten all over the country. It has nothing to do with the Chinese tofu which is made from soy beans - instead Shan tofu is made from chickpea flour. It has a firm texture like polenta which has been set. We saw giant slabs of Shan tofu in the markets, where vendors would shave some off on request for a salad. They were also deep fried and served as snacks. 

 Here it is for breakfast, deep fried sticks served with a simple soup.

 Here on the right is Shan tofu, mixed with a peanut sauce in the style of a salad. 

Shan Tofu.... Newcastle style

(Based on this online recipe)

1 cup organic chickpea flour 

3 cups water 

Pinch of salt, cumin and turmeric 

Heat 2 cups of water on the stove in a saucepan till at a boil  

Mix 1 cup of the water with the chickpea flour and spices until the mixture is smooth

Pour the chickpea mixture into the water in the saucepan in several lots, stirring constantly as it comes together 

Turn the heat to low and cook for ~ 5 minutes till silky smooth and coming away from the sides of the pot 

Place in greased baking dish and cool for a few minutes, smoothing the surface

Rest in fridge for at least 1hr to set 

Remove from dish and slice as desired 

I served mine with cucumber and red capsicum, topped with a simple peanut sauce (peanut butter, honey, soy sauce and apple cider vinegar heated on stove till thick and luscious), coriander and fried shallots.

This post is dedicated to Grace - let's hope we can travel together again soon! Nothing like getting stuck at the Taunggyi balloon festival in the middle of the night, that is another story.