Sticky-rice balls boiled until they float, then rolled in fresh grated coconut, with jaggery hidden inside the sphere. Thingyan (water festival) communal treat.
Thingyan-festival ritual food made April 13–16 in pop-up street kitchens; women cook together in courtyard pavilions, men shoulder the giant water-pots — a documented practice in Yangon since at least the U Nu era (1948–62).
Yangon's Inya Lake roundabout sees public mont lone yay paw stations during Thingyan — Aung San Suu Kyi attended the 2013 communal cooking session there.
Soft chewy white spheres coated in fresh grated coconut, surprise palm-sugar liquid centre that bursts on bite. Sometimes one ball in the batch hides a chili — the prank tradition.
Jaggery centre must be the right size — too small and it dissolves before serving, too large and the dough wall splits in the boil. The balls are dropped into boiling water and are done the moment they float to the surface; they are then rolled in grated coconut while still moist so it adheres.
Variations
Mandalay-Sagaing version uses tanyet jaggery (the firmer toddy-palm kind). Mon-state Mawlamyine version adds a saffron-yellow turmeric tint to the dough and uses palm sugar instead of jaggery.
On the Palate
Where Mont Lone Yay Paw sits in the Burmese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
4 steps · 17 min active + 18 min waiting
- 118 min
Mix 200 g glutinous rice flour with water to soft dough; rest 15 min.
- 210 min
Pinch dough into 30 g balls; insert a small chunk of jaggery into each.
Watch outSize the jaggery chunk just right and seal the dough fully around it — too big and the wall splits in the boil, too small and it melts away before serving.
- 35 min
Drop into boiling coconut milk; cook 5 min until they float.
Watch outThey're done the instant they bob to the surface — pull them then; boiling on past that point turns the glutinous shell gummy and overblown.
- 42 min
Ladle into bowls with coconut milk; eat while warm.
