Shan rice-noodle bowl — thick round noodles with slow-cooked pork ragout, garlic oil, fermented soybean sauce, and pickled greens.
Shan-Chinese border food from Lashio and Kengtung — the round thick noodle and fermented-soybean sauce are Yunnan-Han signatures that crossed into the Shan diet by the late Qing trade route.
Lashio's mee shay tradition uses round wet noodles called mont di in Shan; Yangon shops often substitute spaghetti, which Shan diaspora cook Hsa Moon Hnyin called 'a tolerable compromise' in a 2018 Frontier Myanmar interview.
Chewy white rice noodles, glossy with garlic oil and a brown pork-and-soybean sauce, finished with cilantro and crisp-fried garlic. Funkier than Shan khao swè — the fermented-bean note carries the dish.
The pork is simmered for 90 minutes with star anise and fermented soybean (Shan tua nao discs), reducing until the fat coats the meat. Garlic oil — minced garlic fried in lard until pale gold — is whisked in just before serving.
Variations
Lashio version uses fresh round noodles and lard. Kengtung version is drier and uses peanut oil. Mandalay Shan-quarter shops add tomato to bridge it toward Bamar palates.
On the Palate
Where Mee Shay sits in the Burmese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
4 steps · 10 min active + 1 hour 33 min waiting
- 190 min
Slow-cook pork shoulder with garlic, ginger, fermented soybean sauce, soy 1.5 hr until shredding.
Watch outSimmer the pork until it shreds under a fork and the fat has gone glossy and coats the meat — that sheen means the sauce is rich enough to cling to noodles.
- 26 min
Boil round Shan rice noodles 4 min; drain.
- 34 min
Fry 4 garlic cloves in oil until golden; reserve oil.
Watch outFry the garlic only to pale gold, then pull it off the heat — it keeps cooking in the hot oil, and past gold it turns bitter and ruins the whole drizzle.
- 43 min
Top noodles with pork ragout, garlic oil, pickled greens.
