It’s enough to get tummies rumbling with hunger: the smell of well-boiled pig viscera. Even casual passers-by turn their heads and start salivating when they catch a whiff of intestines, placentas, ears and other parts as they are removed from the boiled soup.
This is the scene of where to eat in Yangon at the pork-stick shop run by Zephyr Restaurant at Sein Lann So Pyay Garden. Set in a grove of cool trees under a hut beside Inya Lake, the shop offers a bit of peace and quiet for pork-stick lovers, but the delicacy can also be ordered from Zephyr’s regular tables situated nearby.
There are two boiled pork-stick pots and one fried pork-stick pot. The price is K200 for each stick, while small and large plates run K5000 and K10,000 respectively.
Customers can request any pig part they desire except for the brain, which is very expensive. The orders are delivered at once. One staff member, who was especially handy with a viscera-splitting knife, said customer favourites include tongue, intestines and placenta.
“This shop is older than all of us,” said one staff member. “I don’t know how long it’s been around, but I started working here three years ago and it’s always been crowded.”
Many pork-stick shops also serve the boiled soup along with pepper, vegetables and onion tops, but the staff at Zephyr says the soup contains too much oil and fat and is therefore dangerous for health. They will give one spoonful for those who think the pig parts are too dry without soup, or they will provide hot water that tastes of fresh dry tea leaves.
The shop also provides a very nice sauce that combines the flavours of tomatoes and chilli paste, which is a good match for the pork parts. Fresh green chillies and garlic are also available.
The pork meat is a little bit dry and tough for some customers who like to put all their sticks in the boiled soup, but it is tastier than pork that is over-boiled. The serving on the small plate is small for K5000, but it deserves extra points for being cleaner and fresher than many other pork-stick shops around town or on the street.
The Zephyr pork-stick shop is open daily from 11am to 8pm, but on weekends and holidays all the sticks run out before evening.
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