Myanmar's favorite dishes show the bonding power of food

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Anyone fortunate enough to have enjoyed a home-cooked meal in Myanmar knows that a typical spread involves multiple dishes, each prepared to balance the five key flavors we consider essential: sweet, sour, spicy, salty and bitter.

At our house when I was growing up in Yangon, this usually meant the table would be laden with a myriad of plates and bowls. There would be a fragrant meat or seafood curry where the gravy is usually made by sauteing finely chopped tomatoes, shallots and ginger; a subtly tart tamarind-based soup to cleanse the palate; a fresh salad either bursting with chile, fish sauce and lime or a generous dose of crushed roasted peanuts; seasonal vegetables stir-fried with garlic and a dash of soy sauce; and the notoriously pungent but ridiculously addictive ngapi-yay (fermented and salted fish paste mixed with water and chiles) accompanied by fresh, boiled or pickled vegetables.