Rakhine Condiment · Pounded Fish Paste
Ngapi Daung
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It's less a side dish than a dare — cooks pound fermented ngapi with fresh chili into a paste hot enough that it's meant to be eaten in small dabs on rice, never scooped by the spoonful.
Fermented fish paste is pounded together with fresh chili, garlic and lime into an intensely spicy, pungent condiment, served alongside rice and boiled or raw vegetables. It's a fixture of home-style Rakhine meals and market food stalls alike.
Why it's made this way: Rakhine State's coastal ngapi, made from marine fish rather than the freshwater fish used inland, gives its condiments a saltier, more intensely savory edge that much of the region's home cooking is built around.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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