Every day at 11am about 1,300 monks queue up for lunch at the Mahagandayon monastery near Mandalay. The temple area is bathed in the distinctive burgundy hue of their robes. Their meal is usually paid for by one family or villagers who have clubbed together - and there is a two-month waiting list for the honour.
The monks are well fed: there is usually soup, rice and a vegetable dish. The Myanmese love their food; they buy the ingredients fresh every day (refrigerators are uncommon) and the country's bounty of produce drives their cuisine. The rich farmlands around Mandalay provide peanuts for roasting or turning into cooking oil, copious green vegetables - including metre-long beans, okra and a variety of tomatoes - and countless varieties of rice from the paddy fields of the Irrawaddy River Delta around Yangon.
Early one morning, we stop at a small market on the outskirts of Mandalay. Carts sell mohinga, a clear fish soup with fine rice noodles that the locals eat for breakfast, and freshly made rice or wheat noodles, which they eat at any time of day. A particular favourite is the local speciality: Mandalay mondi, a rice noodle dish with chicken curry.
While the women buy flowers to offer later at the temple and thanaka (white powder derived from tree bark) to apply as a sun screen, they're also getting down to the serious business of buying food.
Myanmese cuisine is a balance of salads and curries mild and spicy, with influences from the countries that border it - Thailand, China and India. Most interesting are the salads: lephet thoke, known as Myanmar's national dish, is fermented or pickled green tea leaves with chopped tomatoes, among many variations.
Then there are banana blossoms cooked and served with pork; and butter beans fried with garlic. To these are added roasted peanuts and chilli flakes, dried shrimp and anchovies, fish sauce and lime juice, fried shallots and garlic, and pickled mango and ginger. Each is served in a little dish for everyone to add according to their taste. "I love pickled tea leaves with fried garlic, roasted peanuts and sesame seeds served with some rice," says San Phyo Aye, who was born in Yangon but now works as a guide on the Road to Mandalay, a boat that cruises on the Irrawaddy River.