Hangover Science and Mont Hin Gar

Last night, I started to implement a small-scale Moving Object Database (MOD) for my research purposes. But procrastination was so strong that I ended up browsing some blogs. I found out that, given all things equal, the darker your beverage is, the more chance you have for hangover. The original article sorted, from most chance to least chance, as Brandy, red wine, rum, whisky, beer, white wine, gin and vodka. I promptly noted that the list is also from the darkest color to the lightest color. Compare Red Wine and Vodka yourselve. (see original article in www.realbeer.com)

I burnt my midnight oil - and my dawn oil also - that I got up really really late today at 11:30. I set out to my Onee Chan's place to give her a mini-USB cable as her new Nokia E63 didn't come with one. That's so far Nokia went, I think. After that, I went off to my Aunt's (actually friends of my father) place. A very good bowl of Mont Hin Gar, Burmese rice noodle with special fish soup, greeted me. So delicious. It has been months that I never had it, since commercial versions use a lot of MSG.

Mont Hin Gar is a very famous food in Myanmar. There are many variants of soup for this rice noodle. As far as I know, Myaung Mya Mont Hin Gar, Pathein Mont Hin Gar and Hin Ta Da Mont Hin Gar are variants that named after towns in Ayeyarwady Delta Region. Since that delta is blessed with abundant amount of fish. Their themes are similar, think and focus more on fish and fish sauce. Rakhine Mont Hin Gar is from a sea-side State and, too, focus on fish. However, their emphasis is on Chili in clearer soup. Another sea-side region, Maw La Myaing, has a variant which is more like a mixture (or salad) of rice noodle. Their soup is not from fish but from chicken !

Going to northern parts of Myanmar means further away from the sea and no fresh fish available. Therefore, the Mont Hin Gar variants there do not put their focus in fish. Anyar Mont Hin Gar (middle Burma Mont Hin Gar) is made with beans! It is so thick that, in the first time I had, my stomach couldn't digest it well. One of my favorite variant is Innlay Mont Hin Gar. Inn Lay is the second largest lake in Myanmar (see photos I took in Inn Lay in my photo blog) It uses a very bony fish. However, the main focus of it is spring onion shoot! So wonderful.

If you happen to be in Burma (aka Myanmar), you must try those many kind of Mont Hin Gar. It's a must food.