Sweet steamed snack — a pyramid of rice-flour-and-sticky-rice dough wrapped around a coconut filling cooked in jaggery/sugar, parcelled in a banana leaf and steamed. A Burmese street and festival snack.
A type of 'mont' (Burmese rice-based sweet/snack); the name translates as 'rice cake / sticky-rice cake.' The dumpling-in-banana-leaf format is widespread in the region (cf. Vietnamese banh phu the and Chinese zongzi), sold by vendors at markets and around pagodas.
Mandalay's Nyaung Pin tea-shop strip serves it for 1,500 kyat with a small bowl of chickpea broth on the side to cool the burn.
Unwrapped warm from its banana leaf, the dough is soft, springy and faintly sticky, scented by the leaf; the plain rice exterior frames a rich coconut centre sweetened with caramel-deep jaggery, sweet without being cloying.
The dough blends rice flour with sticky rice so that, on steaming, the amylopectin gelatinises into a soft, chewy, sticky texture; the banana leaf shapes the parcel, prevents sticking and lends a grassy aroma, while the shredded coconut is cooked down with jaggery until the sugar caramelises into a deep sweetness.
Variations
Filling and sweetness vary by region and cook — coarser coconut for more texture, jaggery cooked darker toward caramel, or palm vs. cane sugar; some versions add sesame or crushed peanut to the filling.
On the Palate
Where Mont Phet Htok sits in the Burmese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2How it's made
3 steps · 6 min active + 5 min waiting
- 14 min
Boil 400 g thin rice noodles 3 min; drain.
Watch outPull the thin noodles right at tender — three minutes is plenty; overcooked they clump and go mushy in the dressing.
- 25 min
Toss noodles with 60 ml chili oil + 4 cloves fried garlic + 80 g pickled mustard greens + lime + fish sauce.
Watch outToss while the noodles are still warm so they drink up the chili oil and fish sauce — taste and chase the sour-salty balance before serving.
- 32 min
Garnish with cilantro and chili flakes.
