Monthly Photos　March 2015

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa.

(The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

Fusion chicken rice

Rice cooked with chicken broth and served with boiled chicken bearing the name “Hainanese” is in fact a specialty of Malaysia and Singapore. Similar chicken rice is also found in Thailand, called as “Khao Man Gai”. In Myanmar we can taste a variation of Hainanese-style chicken rice called “Kyet-si htamin”. Here the chicken is grilled after boiled to get broth.

In Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, not only Chinese restaurants but also a few Indian restaurants serve chicken rice. The “Indian” chicken rice is different from ordinary “kyet-si htamin” in two points. First, the rice is not cooked with chicken broth. Rather, chicken fat is mixed into the rice after cooking normally. Second, the color of the chicken is golden, not brown like the ordinary “kyet-si htamin”. The chicken might be roasted by a tandoor-like oven.

It seems very rare that an Indian restaurant serves this kind of chicken rice. I have never seen it anywhere else, at least in Myanmar. This is a fusion of Chinese and Indian flavor unique to Myitkyina.

Incidentally, it is a service only to foreigners making the chicken rice heart-shaped, according to the wife of the master of the restaurant.

12 JAN 2015
Shamie Restaurant, Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar
Photograph by Hideo SAWADA

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