Mont lone yay baw ( my, မုန့်လုံးရေပေါ်; ; also spelt mont lone yay paw) is a traditional Burmese

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...

commonly associated with the

Thingyan Thingyan (, ; Arakanese: ; from Sanskrit '' saṁkrānti,'' which means "transit f the Sun from Pisces to Aries) is the Burmese New Year Festival that usually occurs in middle of April. Thingyan is the first ever water festival celebrated in ...

season. The dessert dish consists of round boiled rice balls made from

glutinous rice flour Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated animals, or domesticated plants. These traits were identified by Charles Darwin in '' The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. ...

, filled with pieces of

jaggery Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can ...

palm sugar Palm sugar is a sweetener derived from any variety of palm tree. Palm sugar is sometimes qualified by the type of palm, as in coconut palm sugar. While sugars from different palms may have slightly different compositions, all are processed s ...

, and garnished with fresh coconut shavings.

Traditions

The communal group preparation of mont lone yay baw is a Thingyan tradition, and partakers often play pranks by stuffing some rice balls with

chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...

s instead of

. Donors often dole out '' satuditha'' servings of mont lone yay baw to revelers during the Thingyan season.

Similar dishes

Similar desserts in the region include Indian

modak Modak (Marathi: मोदक; Japanese: 歓喜団; Thai: โมทกะ or ขนมต้ม; Malaysian: Kuih modak; Indonesian: Kue modak; Burmese: မုန့်လုံးရေပေါ်), also referred to as Koḻukattai (கொழ ...

, Malaysian onde-onde, Indonesian

klepon ''Klepon'' (pronounced ''Klē-pon''), or ''kelepon'', is a snack of sweet rice cake balls filled with molten palm sugar and coated in grated coconut. Of Javanese origin, the green-coloured glutinous rice balls are one of the popular traditiona ...

, Thai

bua loi ''Bua loi'' or ''bua loy'' ( th, บัวลอย, , literally: "floating water lily") is a Thai dessert. It consists of rice flour rolled into small balls, and cooked in coconut milk and sugar. Some Bua loi also adds sweet egg into the recipe. ...

, and the Chinese tangyuan.

References

Burmese cuisine Foods containing coconut Burmese desserts and snacks {{Myanmar-cuisine-stub