The Myanmar Restaurant Association has announced that they will host an oh tha gyi cooking competition next year. In case you’re unfamiliar, an oh tha gyi is a cook who knows how to prepare large quantities of food, mainly for ahlu‘s.
As with any competition, prizes will be involved. The first prize winner will take home MMK5 million, second prize is K3 million, and third prize is K2 million, in addition to an array of several additional smaller prizes.
All the necessary equipment will be provided, although participants are welcome to bring their own utensils if they wish to do so.
The best part about all this? In conjunction with the competition, the cooked food will also be laid out as studitha for citizens to enjoy. Due to the nature of the competition, organizers estimate that they’ll be able to feed approximately 2000 people each day.
Speaking to 7Day Daily, chairman Myint Zaw explained that the motivation behind the competition was to praise and reward oh tha gyi’s, and to further highlight traditional Myanmar food.
In fact, the competition will be part of a larger night street festival-esque event where there will be stalls for vendors to sell traditional Myanmar ethnic foods, especially ones that are lesser known or are starting to be forgotten.
“We’ll try our best to make stalls reasonably priced for vendors, and we’ll be inspecting the cooking oil and cleanliness of their food. We also plan on having a ferris wheel like at street festivals, and if possible, Myanmar traditional dance and boxing performances,” said the Association’s Secretary Aung Sithu Soe.
Due to the large amount of people they’re expecting, organizers are also already planning security measures and proper food preparation policies.
The competition and market will be held at Yangon’s Mine Dar field from January 25-29, 10am-10pm daily. The competition will have no entry fees, and all Myanmar citizens are eligible for participation.
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