Myanmar's skewer culture centers on athar kin (literally 'grilled meat'): pick-your-own bamboo sticks of pork belly, chicken, offal, and river fish brushed with soy-garlic glaze and charcoal-grilled to order, epitomized by Yangon's 19th Street barbecue strip in Chinatown. The format blends Chinese chuan-style street grilling with Burmese balachaung-and-beer drinking culture.
Also known as burmese bbq skewers, 19th street barbecue, yangon grilled skewers.
Ingredients
- 400 g pork belly, thin 4 cm squares
- 300 g pork shoulder or chicken thigh, 2.5 cm pieces
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 stalk lemongrass, minced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar
- for the dip: 2 tbsp tamarind water, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tsp chili flakes, 1 tsp toasted rice powder
- lime wedges
How to make it
- 1
Mix the fish sauce, turmeric, lemongrass, garlic, soy and sugar, set a third aside as the glaze, and marinate all the meats in the rest for 2 hours.
- 2
Stir the tamarind water, fish sauce, chili and rice powder into a thin, sour-hot dipping sauce.
- 3
Load bamboo sticks Yangon-market style: belly on its own skewers, lean meat on others, a few pieces per stick so they cook fast.
- 4
Grill over medium coals, brushing the soy-garlic glaze on repeatedly as it cooks rather than once — belly 8-10 minutes until its fat blisters and drips, lean cuts 6-8.
- 5
Pile the sticks up and let everyone dip and squeeze lime as they go.
Pro tip: Small skewers, hot turnover — Burmese stalls grill few pieces per stick precisely so the belly fat crisps before the lean meat overcooks.
Where Athar Kin comes from
It is inseparable from beer and from the balachaung and pickled tea leaf that share the table.
How Athar Kin is cooked
The glaze is applied repeatedly during grilling — soy, garlic, a little oil and often a touch of sugar — building a lacquer in the same manner as Korean dakkochi or Japanese tare, which is a technique this part of Asia arrives at from several directions.
Because everything on the tray cooks at different rates, the grill runs multiple zones and the cook works by eye rather than by timer. Fish and offal go on separately, and pork belly — the most-ordered skewer — is given the longest so the fat renders and the edges crisp.
Ingredients and shopping
Pork belly in thin slices threaded in a wave, plus pork shoulder or chicken thigh; for the full stall spread, add chicken hearts and gizzards, quail eggs, river fish, okra, aubergine and mushrooms. Bamboo skewers, soaked.
The glaze is soy sauce, minced garlic, oil, a little sugar and sometimes fish sauce. Balachaung — the fried dried-shrimp and chilli relish — on the table, along with a sour-hot tamarind dip and pickled vegetables. Beer, invariably.
How Athar Kin is served
Skewers arrive as they are ready, at a low plastic table on the pavement, with balachaung, pickled vegetables, a sour-hot tamarind dip and beer. It is a long evening rather than a meal, and the ordering is continuous.
Common mistakes
Glazing once at the end
The lacquer is built by repeated brushing through the cook, as with dakkochi and yakitori tare.
Everything on the grill at once
Fish, offal, pork belly and vegetables have different timings. Work in zones and by eye.
Lean pork
Belly is the correct cut and the most-ordered skewer. Its rendering fat is the point.
Skipping the dipping sauce
Every skewer is meant to be dunked: a sharp, sour-hot dip of tamarind or fish sauce with chilli sits beside the plates, alongside the beer.
Athar Kin: questions and answers
What does athar kin mean?
Grilled meat, literally, in Burmese. It covers the whole pick-your-own skewer format.
Where is it best known?
19th Street in Yangon's Chinatown, a barbecue strip where the format is at its most concentrated.
How does the pick-your-own system work?
Raw skewers are laid out on trays, the customer selects what they want, and everything is grilled to order while you sit.
What is balachaung?
A Burmese relish of fried dried shrimp, garlic and chilli, salty and intense, served alongside almost everything.
Sources and further reading
- Myanmar Barbecue on 19th Street Yangon, Chinatown — Migrationology
- Local Eats at Yangon's 19th Street — Kathmandu and Beyond
