Myanmar Food

Monte Lone Yay Paw

Rice Dumpling (or) Myanmar Traditional Rice Balls Floating in water

Ingredients

1) glutinous rice - 800 g

2) rice - 200g

3) clean palm sugar - 400g

4) a medium-sized coconut - 1

5) banana leaves - a few

How to cook

Clean dust, tiny stones and sand from the glutinous rice. Wash the rice in a pot. Then soak with water for about 5 hours. After soaking the glutinous rice for 5hours, the mixture must be thoroughly grounded. Since there are still some more water in the mixture, use a thin cloth to pack it and drain water with some force. Then put a weight on the cloth bag for about another 3 hours. After squeezing all the water out of the mixture, now we can start with making the balls. The brownish sugar palms are cut into small pieces such as the seed of a tamarind, to put inside the rice balls. Now, we can take a small amount of the rice mixture, and role it into the shape of a ball using your 2 palms. Then, press the sugar palm in the middle of the ball and cover it up with the rest of the mixture. Boil some water and then put the balls into the heated water. The balls will sink to the bottom of the pot. When the rice balls are cooked it automatically floats up on the surface of the water. This is the main reason for naming the snack as Monte Lone Yay Paw. It means, the balls floating at the surface of the water. Now, you can collect the floating balls and put onto the banana leaf or on a plate. Cut open a coconut and scramble some of the coconut inside. Then apply it on the rice balls. Now it is ready to serve.

Monte Lone Yay Paw is mostly made by locals during the Thingyan Water Festival. Throwing water on each other and teasing with rice balls is also another Myanmar Tradition. Some young people stuff chilies inside the rice ball other than the sugar palm. It is fun when someone eats it during Thingyan.