Why food is a great diplomatic tool | Htet Myet Oo | TEDxYangon

Htet Myet Oo talks about using the little known cuisine of Myanmar as a tool of diplomacy to put the country back on the world map after decades of isolation. Discover the vibrancy of the Myanmar cuisine and how it reflects the country’s diverse population and history.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

I'm going to put up a photo
of my all-time favorite food.

Now, if you agree with me,
that this food is also your favorite,

all I want is for you to cheer;

give it a big clap, give it
a big 'whoop, whoop', whatever.

If you don't like it,
you are allowed to boo.

It's the only booing you'll be doing today

so, if you like that type of thing
then, this is your opportunity.

Okay, so here we go.

(Cheers)

Yes!

(Applause)

There's a few people who are not having
any form of food today.

Anyway, this one fruit

has the ability to show us
how powerful the act of eating can be.

Some of you, I know
you're looking at this photo

and you're probably wondering
if I bought any for lunch today.

I wasn't allowed to, I didn't.

Some of you are probably wondering,
"Is he being serious?",

and you probably feel a bit nauseous.

But that's how emotional food can make us.

There's love and hate, and
there's everything in between.

And this combination
of eating and emotions,

it affects the way
we perceive one another,

so you are more likely
to strike a relationship

with a stranger in this crowd
who reacted the same way you did.

Today, as Burma or Myanmar
is rejoining the global community,

we have this exact problem.

The world's opinion about us is divided,

but, what I want to do is to show you
you my idea today of a food revolution

because I think we can
shape these opinions

using the love of our nation's cuisine.

Now, in case you don't know who I am
or you haven't figured it out yet,

I'm infatuated by eating.

I have a bit of a problem,
I'm a little obsessed, okay?

To me, food is constantly evolving.

You can have the exact same dish
in two completely different environments,

and your experience
is completely transformed.

For example,

have any of you ever had a coffee
in the morning before the toilet?

Anyone?

Well, I'm sure there's
some of you who have -

It helps the bowels, okay?

It's quite life-changing for some of us.

My life changed when I was four,

when I left Burma and I moved to the UK.

And it was just the four of us.

It was my parents, my brother and just me.

There you are.

At home was first where
I fell in love with our cuisine.

But, to tell you the truth,

until I moved back to Burma,
about five years ago,

this cuisine was my only real connection
to this country growing up.

At home, my mom's
signature dish was her Mohinga.

And this Mohinga was very special

because she would make this
for breakfast, for dinner, for birthdays.

I know you're getting hungry,
okay, just a minute -

for all sorts of special occasions.

But, for those of you who don't know,
who may be watching, what a Mohinga is,

it's the dish we all grew up with.

It's a hot, steaming fish-based broth,

and in this country we have it
in the morning, in 35 degree heat -

which I'm feeling right now -

at home, or on the street.

But if you can picture it for a second -

this is where I grew up.

So, in winter, in zero degree weather,

can you picture having
that exact same dish

while the snow is falling outside?

It's a transformative experience, right?

So, this dish started off life

as a breakfast dish intended
to fill you up in the morning,

but now, it has the power to keep
a whole family together and warm at night.

And about two and a half years ago,
I wanted to channel that experience.

I wanted to challenge the way

our local cuisine was seen
and experienced,

so I was one of those
crazy nut jobs that decided

that opening a restaurant
would be a good idea.

Now, if people care about you,

no one will ever tell you
that it is a [bad] idea.

But, we did it anyway,
and we've been very lucky.

Over the last two and a half years,
our representation of local cuisine

has been featured in over
50 international publications.

But, the amazing thing about that

is that most of these publications
are writing about Burmese cuisine

for the very first time.

For me, if I was to describe
our country through a dish,

it would be that Mohinga.

Because both the country
and the dish are humble in nature.

I think both are slightly misunderstood
by those who don't know it,

but I think, both have
the potential to go global.

But, you see, the problem
we have in this country right now,

is that we put so much emphasis
on developing it,

purely with the things we can measure.

So, we measure the currency,

we measure the economy,

we measure the weather.

Sometimes, we measure the traffic,

and we tell each other how horrible
the traffic has become.

But let me ask you, what about
the things we can't measure?

How do we measure the way our taste buds
will change over the next generation?

We can't.

How could we measure the impact
that our cuisine could have

on somebody eating it
for the very first time?

We can't.

But these things are just as important
in the evolution of our country.

So if I put this photo in front of you,

which is a cheeseburger, right?

What is the first country
that would come to mind?

Presumably, for the majority of you
would be America, yes?

But, what if I told you that the burger
began with the Mongol Empire,

would you believe me?

The legend goes that, as Genghis Khan
and his army were conquering the world,

they had a problem.

They would often live on vast areas
of land with no vegetation.

So what they did was they would get meat -

back then it was horse meat -

and they would put it under their saddle,

so they could eat as they ride.

And if you look at
a map of this great empire,

you will find that a lot of this area
is in a part of the world

we now call Eastern Europe.

And it's in Eastern Europe
that we would see

the first version of this burger

which is the tartare,
which is diced up raw meat.

Many, many, many years later,

that this dish, the tartare,
would make its way to Germany,

to a city called Hamburg.

That's where it would become
the hamburger,

not because it has ham in it, okay?

So, I've just broken an urban myth there.

What this story tells us is that

in the evolution
of a country or a cuisine,

we shouldn't be talking about
weeks, or months, or years.

We should be talking about decades,
or centuries, or potentially even longer.

If you allow me to ask you
some questions -

I just want you to think
about it for a second -

if we hadn't been isolated
for more than the last 50 years,

do you think that there would be

more Burmese restaurants
around the world?

Perhaps?

Do you think that Burmese cuisine
would have evolved in any way?

Perhaps?

But, do you think there would be
more tourists coming into Burma?

I definitely think so.

But these are all
great questions in hindsight.

Maybe they're not so relevant anymore,

but a relevant question would be something
a friend asked me a couple of weeks ago

which is, "Htet, would you
travel for food?"

So, let me ask you,
would you travel for food?

(Audience) Yeah.

Htet Myet Oo: Yeah?
Because I only travel for food, okay.

It's the only reason
I get free lunch today,

so that's why I did this.

(Laughter)

And I think more and more people
every year, are traveling to places

like the Coliseum and the Eiffel Tower,

not just to see
these historical landmarks,

but they're traveling to sample
the cuisines of that country.

Food is a big reason why we go back
to these countries time and time again.

So, this is me in a food coma in Paris.

(Laughter)

You can see that.

I didn't quite make it to the Eiffel Tower
but you can see why.

Last year, the UN released a survey
that showed that 88.2% of people

consider gastronomy.

So, let's picture that
no one here was Burmese,

or you've never been
to visit Burma before.

If we were researching

whether we wanted to come to
this beautiful country on holiday,

and we were part of that 88.2% ,

what do you think that we would see
written about our cuisine?

Because when I moved here
five years ago, this is what I saw:

"It's too oily."

"Htet, Burmese food is so oily, alright."

"It has too much MSG in it."

I like MSG, but that's for another talk.

But the truth of the matter is that

this is just the opinions of a few
and these are certainly not facts.

But if we did look at some facts,
what we would find is that

there are over a 135 ethnic
minorities in the country.

That's a fact.

So, that's a lot of different ways
of consuming food.

Rangoon, the city that
we're standing in right now,

in the late 1920s had taken over New York

as the migration capital of the world.

That's also a fact.

And that's a lot of influence
coming in from other countries.

So, let me ask you again,

in that 88.2%,

what do you think we should be
seeing written about our cuisine?

If you look at this,

which is our coconut noodles,

you should see our generosity,

our richness as a country.

If you look at this, our prata
traditionally from India,

so you should see our cultural diversity

and our history.

If you look at this

- which is our Mohinga -

it has 28 ingredients.

So, you should see the complexity
of the people that we are.

The great news is

that promoting our country
through our cuisine is in our reality,

with the right mix
of passion and planning.

It's called Culinary Diplomacy,

and if you google it -

which I've shown you how to do
in case any of you are not aware -

what you will find is
a Wikipedia article which states

that Culinary Diplomacy
is based on the premise that,

"the easiest way to win hearts
and minds is through the stomach."

As you can tell.

And what you will have now

is a number of government-led
initiatives around the world

practicing culinary diplomacy programs,

like in Thailand,
like in Korea, like in the US.

If we took Thailand as an example,
because they're the closest country to us,

they've released or they started

a culinary diplomacy program
in 2002 called "Global Tha.""

What the government aimed to do
was to subsidize and certify

as many Thai restaurants around the world
as the government could afford.

They had three main targets:

Number one was they wanted to create

as many jobs for Thai hospitality
migrants around the world.

Secondly, they wanted to increase
exports out of Thailand,

and they thought, more
Thai restaurants more exports.

And the third thing,
which is very difficult to measure,

is that they wanted to increase

the global understanding
and appreciation of Thai cuisine.

If you ask, whether you think
they've been successful or not,

you just have to look at this.

In 2002 there were 5,500 Thai restaurants

outside of Thailand around the world;

by 2012, there were 15,000.

There were 10 million visitors
going into Thailand in 2002,

and there were 32 million in 2016.

Of course, this culinary diplomacy program

is not the only reason why
these numbers have gone up,

but it shows that a national initiative
to do something like this

has an effect in the long term.

The truth is, that if the world had more
of an affinity towards our country,

we would be less likely
to be discriminated against, right?

Because we have an identity,
people know who we are.

But more important than that,
is in this generation and the next,

there would be more
opportunity for all of us.

But, what we need to do
as Burmese people, is realize that

our pride is our strength,
but it can also be our weakness.

It's not enough just to believe in
what you do and believe in yourself.

In the 21st century you need to
convince others of it too.

My dream is to see Burmese food
in every major city in the world.

Mohinga in Paris,
Tea Leaf Salad in New York.

Can you picture that?

Yeah?

If our country was a train,

we have just left the station;

we've only just left it.

Culture, health, education, technology -

all of these things
are all aboard this train.

We, as a country, need to put
our cuisine on there as well.

It's really important.

The greatest thing about food

is that there is no such thing
as a culinary dictator,

because we don't want one of those, right?

There is no such thing as a culinary coup.

So it doesn't matter
the economy, the politics,

no one will be able to take away
a global Burmese cuisine.

Please, enjoy your lunch everyone.

Thank you.

(Applause)