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{{Short description|Burmese noodle soup of rice noodles and fish}}
{{Infobox food
| name             = Mohinga
| image            = File:Mohnga.jpg
| caption          = Mohinga with fritters
| alternate_name   = Mont hin gar
| country          = Myanmar
| region           =
| national_cuisine = [[Burmese cuisine]]
| creator          =
| course           = Breakfast
| main_ingredient  = [[Rice vermicelli]], catfish
| minor_ingredient = Fish sauce, fish paste, ginger, banana stem, lemongrass, onions, garlic, chickpea flour
| variations       = Many; see [[#Regional_varieties|§Regional varieties]] below
| other            =
}}
{{Contains special characters|Burmese}}
'''Mohinga''' ({{MYname|MY=မုန့်ဟင်းခါး|MLCTS=mun.hang: hka:}}, {{IPA|my|mo̰ʊɰ̃hɪ́ɰ̃ɡá|IPA}}; also spelt '''mont hin gar''') is the [[national dish]] of Myanmar. Mohinga is fish soup made with rice noodles, typically served as a hearty breakfast. It features a rich broth flavored with lemongrass, turmeric, and fish sauce, often garnished with boiled eggs, cilantro, and crispy fritters. <ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://www.foodrepublic.com/2017/02/22/burmese-food-primer/|title=Burmese Food Primer: Essential Dishes To Eat In Myanmar|date=2017-02-22|work=Food Republic|access-date=2018-07-09|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-06-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602225915/https://www.foodrepublic.com/2017/02/22/burmese-food-primer/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-07-19|title=Super bowls: Burmese recipes by the Rangoon Sisters|url=http://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jul/19/super-bowls-burmese-recipes-by-the-rangoon-sisters|access-date=2021-09-06|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=2021-07-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723235702/https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jul/19/super-bowls-burmese-recipes-by-the-rangoon-sisters|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Aye|first=MiMi|title=Mandalay: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen|publisher=Bloomsbury Absolute|year=2020|isbn=9781472959492|pages=107–108}}</ref> Mohinga is readily available in most parts of the country, sold by [[Hawker (trade)|street hawkers]] and roadside stalls in larger cities. Mohinga is traditionally eaten for [[breakfast]], but today is eaten at any time of day. Egg, onions or herbs can be added into the dish.

== Description and ingredients ==
The main ingredients of mohinga are [[chickpea flour|gram flour]] and/or crushed toasted rice, [[garlic]], [[shallot]]s or [[onions]], [[lemongrass]], [[ginger]], fish paste, [[fish sauce]], and [[catfish]] (or other types of fishes, such as [[Mrigal carp]]).<ref name=":7" /> The ingredients are combined in a rich broth, which is cooked and kept on the boil.<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bush|first=Austin|title=10 foods to try in Myanmar -- from tea leaf salad to Shan-style rice|url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/myanmar-foods-try/index.html|access-date=2020-05-31|website=CNN|date=12 July 2017 |language=en|archive-date=2020-08-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804130226/https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/myanmar-foods-try/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Mohinga is served with [[rice vermicelli]], dressed and garnished with fish sauce, a squeeze of [[Lime (fruit)|lime]], crisp fried onions, [[coriander]], spring onions, crushed dried chillis, and, as optional toppings, deep-fried [[Burmese fritters]] such as split chickpeas, [[urad dal]], [[gourd]], sliced pieces of [[youtiao]], as well as boiled egg and fried [[ngapi]] fish cake.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=2013-08-27|title=Mohinga: Myanmar's National Dish|language=en-US|work=The Slow Road Travel Blog|url=https://www.butterfield.com/blog/2013/08/27/mohinga-myanmars-national-dish/|access-date=2018-07-09|archive-date=2018-07-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710010316/https://www.butterfield.com/blog/2013/08/27/mohinga-myanmars-national-dish/|url-status=live}}</ref> Mohinga is eaten with [[Chinese spoon|Chinese soup spoons]], which are known as ''mohinga zun'' ({{Lit|mohinga spoons}}) in Burmese.<ref name=":7" />

Mohinga is a very common breakfast dish in Myanmar, and available as an "all-day breakfast" in many towns and cities.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-12-17|title=The best thing I ate in 2017|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/17/best-thing-i-ate-in-2017-jamie-oliver-nadiya-hussain|access-date=2021-09-06|website=the Guardian|language=en|archive-date=2021-07-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710222523/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/17/best-thing-i-ate-in-2017-jamie-oliver-nadiya-hussain|url-status=live}}</ref> Mohinga can be served as a formal dish made from scratch as well as from a ready-made powder used for making the broth. Mohinga used to be available only early in the morning and at street ''pwè''s (open air stage performances), ''zat pwè''s (open air dance performances) or theatres at night. [[Hawker (trade)|Street hawkers]] often sell mohinga, with some carrying the soup cauldron on a stove on one side of a [[Carrying pole|shoulder pole]], with rice vermicelli and other ingredients, along with bowls and spoons, on the other.<ref name=":1" /> Trishaw peddlers began to appear in the 1960s and some of them set up pavement stalls making mohinga available all day.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Mandalay trishaw peddler.jpg|A ''mohinga'' trishaw peddler in [[Mandalay]] will stop for customers.
File:Mohinga stall, Mandalay, Myanmar.JPG|''Mohinga'' is available all day from pavement stalls such as this in Mandalay.
File:Mohinga.jpg|Ready-made packages containing powder to cook ''mohinga'' soup is also available.
File:IMG mohinga0948.JPG|Mohinga streethawker in Mandalay
</gallery>

==History and origins==
The origins of mohinga are difficult to pinpoint in the absence of extant records.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-04-05|title=မုန့်ဟင်းခါး အကြောင်း သိကောင်းစရာ|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/%e1%80%99%e1%80%af%e1%80%94%e1%80%b9%e1%82%94%e1%80%9f%e1%80%84%e1%80%b9%e1%80%b8%e1%80%81%e1%80%ab%e1%80%b8-%e1%80%a1%e1%80%b1%e1%81%be%e1%80%80%e1%80%ac%e1%80%84%e1%80%b9%e1%80%b8-%e1%80%9e%e1%80%ad/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109093622/http://myfoodmyanmar.com/%E1%80%99%E1%80%AF%E1%80%94%E1%80%B9%E1%82%94%E1%80%9F%E1%80%84%E1%80%B9%E1%80%B8%E1%80%81%E1%80%AB%E1%80%B8-%E1%80%A1%E1%80%B1%E1%81%BE%E1%80%80%E1%80%AC%E1%80%84%E1%80%B9%E1%80%B8-%E1%80%9E%E1%80%AD|archive-date=2018-01-09|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref> Food processing tools used to ferment [[rice]] dating to the [[Pyu city-states]] have been discovered, showing that the tradition of making rice vermicelli, the key starch used in mohinga, has a long history. The earliest reference to mohinga dates to the [[Konbaung dynasty]], in the poet [[U Ponnya]]'s ''alinga'' verse poem.<ref name=":2" /> Burmese history historian [[Khin Maung Nyunt]] has concluded that during pre-colonial times, mohinga was likely a commoner's dish, as a formal recipe for mohinga has not been found in royal records or cookbooks.<ref name=":2" /> 

During the latter half of [[Bagyidaw]]'s reign, a poet by the name of U Min wrote about mohinga using the phrase "''[[mont di]]''" (မုန့်တီ). While ''mont di'' now commonly refers to another type of rice vermicelli dishes, a small minority continue to use "''mont ti''" in reference to mohinga. Various regions in the country call mohinga "''mont''" (မုန့်) or "''mont hin''" (မုန့်ဟင်း).

== Regional varieties ==
There are different regional varieties of mohinga throughout Myanmar, depending on the availability of ingredients and culinary preferences. For example, [[Rakhine State|Rakhine]] mohinga has more [[ngapi|fish paste]] and less soup. The most commonly prepared version comes from [[Lower Myanmar]], where fresh fish is more readily available. These varieties of ''mohinga'' originate from the [[Irrawaddy Delta|Irrawaddy delta]], which are often dubbed ''tawchet mohinga'' ({{Lit|rural style ''mohinga''}}).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Thinn Thiri San|date=2019-07-24|title=မုန့်ဟင်းခါး နှင့် မြန်မာလူမျိုး|url=https://yangon.style/item_cat/read-bread/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111021128/https://yangon.style/item_cat/read-bread/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=Yangon Style|language=my}}</ref> Several well-known mohinga shops in Yangon serve Irrawaddy delta-style mohinga, including Myaungmya Daw Cho and Bogalay Daw Nyo.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=ငြိမ်းအိအိထွေး|date=2018-08-29|title=ရန်ကုန်မြို့က နာမည်ကျော် မုန့်ဟင်းခါးဆိုင် ၁ဝ ဆိုင်|url=https://myanmar.mmtimes.com/restaurant-reviews/114715.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111015918/https://myanmar.mmtimes.com/restaurant-reviews/114715.html|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=The Myanmar Times}}</ref> 

Versions of mohinga from the Irrawaddy delta include:

* [[Bogale]] mohinga – cooked in a broth of fish and abundant black pepper,<ref name=":3" />
* [[Myaungmya]] mohinga – cooked with three varieties of fish, namely [[Channa striata|striped snakehead]], [[walking catfish]], and [[Cirrhinus mrigala|Hamilton's carp]],<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2015-12-13|title=မြောင်းမြမုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/myaung-mya-mont-hinn-khar/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111015855/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/myaung-mya-mont-hinn-khar/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>
* [[Pyapon]] mohinga,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2018-08-13|title=ဒေသအစားအစာ တစ်ခုဖြစ်သည့် တောင်ငူမုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=http://www.timeayeyar.com/2018/08/blog-post_747.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111020001/http://www.timeayeyar.com/2018/08/blog-post_747.html|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=TimeAyeyar|language=my}}</ref>
* [[Pathein]] mohinga,<ref name=":4" />
* [[Yangon]] mohinga – cooked in a broth of catfish, chickpeas, and peanuts).<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2015-12-29|title=ရန်ကုန် မုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/yangon-mont-hin-ga/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111045029/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/yangon-mont-hin-ga/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>

Versions of mohinga from the [[Bago Region]] include:

* [[Hinthada]] mohinga – cooked with [[Ilish|hilsa]] in lieu of catfish,<ref>{{Cite web|last=San San Oo|date=2017-07-25|title=ဟင်္သာတမုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=http://www.foodmagazinemyanmar.com/contributors/ဟသၤာတမုန္႔ဟင္းခါး/|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006073848/http://www.foodmagazinemyanmar.com/contributors/%E1%80%9F%E1%80%9E%E1%81%A4%E1%80%AC%E1%80%90%E1%80%99%E1%80%AF%E1%80%94%E1%80%B9%E1%82%94%E1%80%9F%E1%80%84%E1%80%B9%E1%80%B8%E1%80%81%E1%80%AB%E1%80%B8/|archive-date=2018-10-06|access-date=|website=FOOD Magazine Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>
* [[Madauk]] mohinga – cooked with [[Ngachin|pickled shrimp]], and served with raw tomatoes,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-04-05|title=မဒေါက် မုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/ma-dout-mont-hinn-khar/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111043313/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/ma-dout-mont-hinn-khar/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>
* [[Nyaunglebin]] and [[Pyuntaza]] mohinga – cooked with [[Ngachin|pickled fish]], served with pickled [[jujube]],<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=လှမြိုင်|date=2019-08-06|title=မုန့်ဟင်းခါး ဋီကာ (ဒါဖတ်ပြီးမှ မုန့်ဟင်းခါး စားပါ)|url=http://www.lwinpyin.com/2019/08/mote-hin-kar-about-q.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111023206/http://www.lwinpyin.com/2019/08/mote-hin-kar-about-q.html|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=Lwin Pyin News|language=my}}</ref>
* [[Taungoo]] mohinga – served in a thinner broth more akin to a dry noodle salad, with raw tomatoes, chopped green beans, and a side of pickled white jujubes.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-03-08|title=တောင်ငူ မုန့်ဟင်းခါး ရေကျဲ|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/taunggu-mont-hinn-khar-2/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111030447/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/taunggu-mont-hinn-khar-2/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>

Versions of mohinga from Southern and Eastern Myanmar include:

* [[Dawei]] mohinga – similar to conventional mohinga, with [[black pepper]] in lieu of [[paprika]],<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2019-02-01|title=မုန့်ဟင်းခါးချက်နည်းအမျိုးမျိုး|url=https://yangonlife.com.mm/mm/article/60814|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111021027/https://yangonlife.com.mm/mm/article/60814|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=Yangon Life|language=my}}</ref>
* [[Karen people|Kayin]] mohinga – served in one of two broths (sweet or spicy), served with raw tomatoes, [[Sprouting|bean sprouts]], [[Green bean|green beans]], and [[Mentha|mint]] in lieu of coriander,<ref>{{Cite web|last=မြင့်ဦးသာ|date=2017-07-25|title=ကရင်မုန့်ဟင်းခါး၊ ကရင်ငါးပေါင်းထုပ်၊ ဘားအံ၊ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်ခရီးစဉ်|url=https://www.foodmagazinemyanmar.com/food/ကရင္မုန္႔ဟင္းခါး၊-ကရင္င/|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118054637/https://www.foodmagazinemyanmar.com/food/%e1%80%80%e1%80%9b%e1%80%84%e1%80%b9%e1%80%99%e1%80%af%e1%80%94%e1%80%b9%e1%82%94%e1%80%9f%e1%80%84%e1%80%b9%e1%80%b8%e1%80%81%e1%80%ab%e1%80%b8%e1%81%8a-%e1%80%80%e1%80%9b%e1%80%84%e1%80%b9%e1%80%84/|archive-date=2020-11-18|access-date=|website=FOOD Magazine Myanmar|language=my}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-06-02|title=ကရင် မုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/karen-style-mont-hinn-khar/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111020740/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/karen-style-mont-hinn-khar/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref> 
* [[Mawlamyine]] mohinga – cooked to a thinner broth consistency with boiled peas, green beans, mint, fish cakes, and [[jaggery]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=ချိုဝတ်ရည်|date=2013-04-13|title=မော်လမြိုင် မုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=http://www.wutyeefoodhouse.com/?p=9022|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111045003/http://www.wutyeefoodhouse.com/?p=9022|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=Wutyee Food House|language=my}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-04-06|title=မော်လမြိုင် မုန့်ဟင်းခါး (သို့) မော်လမြိုင် မုန့်တီ|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/%e1%80%b1%e1%80%99%e1%80%ac%e1%80%b9%e1%80%9c%e1%81%bf%e1%80%99%e1%80%ad%e1%80%b3%e1%80%84%e1%80%b9-%e1%80%99%e1%80%af%e1%80%94%e1%80%b9%e1%82%94%e1%80%9f%e1%80%84%e1%80%b9%e1%80%b8%e1%80%81%e1%80%ab/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111043342/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/%E1%80%B1%E1%80%99%E1%80%AC%E1%80%B9%E1%80%9C%E1%81%BF%E1%80%99%E1%80%AD%E1%80%B3%E1%80%84%E1%80%B9-%E1%80%99%E1%80%AF%E1%80%94%E1%80%B9%E1%82%94%E1%80%9F%E1%80%84%E1%80%B9%E1%80%B8%E1%80%81%E1%80%AB/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>
* [[Mon people|Mon]] mohinga – similar to conventional mohinga, cooked without banana stems and rice flour,<ref name=":6" />
* [[Thaton]] mohinga – served with [[Cirrhinus mrigala|Hamilton's carp]], mint, green beans, bean sprouts, tomatoes, and fermented yellow rice cake patties.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-06-03|title=သထုံ ထမင်းဝါ (မုန့်ဟင်းခါး)|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/tha-htong-mont-hinn-khar/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111020051/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/tha-htong-mont-hinn-khar/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>

In [[Upper Myanmar]], variants of mohinga include:

* [[Upper Myanmar|Anya]] mohinga – mohinga cooked in a broth of chicken, fish, and chickpea flour in lieu of toasted rice flour), which is common to [[Upper Myanmar]] towns like [[Monywa]], [[Wetlet]], [[Shwebo]], [[Kyaukpadaung]], and [[Myingyan]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-04-04|title=ညောင်ပင်ကြီး မုန့်ဟင်းခါး (သို့) အညာ မုန့်ဟင်းခါး|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/rural-style-mont-hinn-khar/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111021134/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/rural-style-mont-hinn-khar/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=en-US}}</ref>
* In mohinga – cooked in a broth of catfish and green onions.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2016-04-04|title=အင်းမုန့်ဟင်းခါး (သို့) အင်းမုန့်တီ|url=https://myfoodmyanmar.com/inn-mont-hinn-khar/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111043743/https://myfoodmyanmar.com/inn-mont-hinn-khar/|archive-date=2021-01-11|access-date=2021-01-09|website=MyFood Myanmar|language=my}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Burmese cuisine]]
* ''[[Laksa]]''
* [[List of soups]]
* [[Noodle soup]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/mar/23/20-best-noodle-recipes-fish-soup-mohinga Mohinga recipe] from ''[[Mandalay: Recipes and Tales from a Burmese Kitchen|Mandalay: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen]]''

{{Burmese cuisine}}
{{Noodle}}
{{Soups}}

[[Category:Burmese noodle dishes]]
[[Category:Culture of Myanmar]]
[[Category:National dishes]]
[[Category:Fish and seafood soups]]
[[Category:Noodle soups]]