A Burmese meal is a specific structural arrangement — not a main dish with sides but a collection of preparations of roughly equal importance, each contributing a different flavour register and texture to the meal as a whole. Duguid documents this structure in Burma: Rivers of Flavor as fundamental to understanding why Burmese recipes cannot be presented as individual dishes without their context.
Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford, *Hot Sour Salty Sweet* (2000); Naomi Duguid, *Burma: Rivers of Flavor* (2012)