Bamar thick-rice-noodle salad — round noodles tossed with chicken curry, chickpea flour, hard-boiled egg, fried onion, lime.
Mandalay-region invention, late-19th to early-20th-century — the salad treatment of curry-noodle, distinct from the soup version. The thick round nan gyi noodle is named after its diameter, gyi meaning 'big' in Burmese.
U Aung Thaung's 1958 'Myanma Hsa Hpyat Tha-yet' lists nan gyi thoke as a Mandalay specialty distinct from Yangon mohinga. Mandalay's Tha Pyay Nyo restaurant has run a 5-table nan-gyi-only shop since 1975.
Thick fat white noodles, every strand coated in a small amount of yellow chicken curry, with the dry crunch of chickpea-flour powder and fried onion. Bright with lime. Foreigners call it 'Burmese spaghetti' for shape, not for sauce.
Curry is reduced almost dry — too wet, the salad becomes soup; too dry, it won't coat. Chickpea-flour powder must be added at the table, not in the kitchen, or it absorbs moisture and clumps. Hand-mixing is essential.
Variations
Mandalay version uses chicken-thigh curry. Yangon shops often substitute coconut chicken curry (effectively dry ohn no khao swè). Pyin Oo Lwin hill-station version adds shredded boiled potato.
On the Palate
Where Nan Gyi Thoke sits in the Burmese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
4 steps · 13 min active + 40 min waiting
- 140 min
Make light chicken curry: chicken + onion + garlic + ginger + turmeric + fish sauce, simmer 40 min.
Watch outReduce the curry until it's thick and barely saucy, not soupy — too wet and the salad turns to soup, too dry and it won't coat the noodles.
- 26 min
Boil round Bamar rice noodles 4 min; drain.
Watch outBoil the round noodles just four minutes to a springy bite and drain well — a sticky wet tangle clumps the moment you toss it.
- 34 min
Toss noodles with chickpea flour, sliced onion, chili oil, fish sauce.
Watch outSprinkle the chickpea flour on and toss by hand right before eating — add it early and it soaks up moisture and turns to lumps.
- 43 min
Top with curry sauce, boiled egg quartered, fried onion, lime.
