Burmese Mohinga

Economic context

Mohinga is street breakfast food, sold cheaply from carts and baskets since early morning — exactly the kind of low-cost, everyday meal that a modest daily food budget is built around, which helps explain why it remains Myanmar’s most-eaten dish despite staying largely unknown beyond the country’s borders.

Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. This figure describes the cost of a healthy diet in Myanmar generally — it is not a costing of this specific recipe.

Ingredients — for 4 people

• 400 g (14 oz) white fish fillets (catfish or similar)
• 300 g (10.6 oz) thin rice noodles
• 2 stalks lemongrass, ginger, turmeric
• 3 tbsp toasted chickpea flour
• 2 tbsp ground rice
• Fish sauce, fried onions, cilantro, lime, hard-boiled eggs

Burmese mohinga recipe, step by step

1. Poach the fish in water with lemongrass and ginger, then flake it, removing any bones.
2. Fry onion, garlic, and turmeric in oil until fragrant.
3. Add the reserved fish broth and bring to a simmer.
4. Dissolve the chickpea flour and ground rice in a little water, and stir into the broth to thicken it.
5. Return the flaked fish to the broth, season with fish sauce, and simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Serve over rice noodles, topped with fried onions, cilantro, a hard-boiled egg, and a squeeze of lime.

Cooking method

Technique: a fish broth thickened with chickpea flour and ground rice, without cream or coconut milk.

Traditional equipment: a large pot kept warm all morning at Burmese street stalls.

Tips: dissolve the chickpea flour thoroughly before adding it, to avoid lumps in the broth.

Nutrition, per serving

Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities, divided by four servings.

No coconut milk or cream keeps saturated fat unusually low (2 g) for a noodle soup this filling — the thickening here comes entirely from chickpea flour and ground rice rather than fat. Rice noodles supply most of the 71 g of carbohydrate, with the fish and egg adding a lean 24 g of protein.

History

Mohinga is widely considered Myanmar’s national dish and its most iconic street breakfast, traditionally sold by roaming vendors from early morning. Despite its near-universal popularity at home, it remains little known outside Myanmar, partly due to the country’s decades of relative international isolation.

Who this dish suits

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