Words by Shan Min Kha
Universities in Myanmar usually start in early December and have their midterms at the end of March or a little earlier, depending on the universities. COVID-19 just happened to have arrived in Myanmar at the end of February 2020, and people debated whether it was okay to hold more classes or should everybody start their quarantines; all the students were in turmoil like everywhere else in the world. Some universities had their exams, and some did not, but in the end, because of the lack of online teaching infrastructure and the need for practical classes at some universities, all teaching stopped. The citizens of Myanmar waited for the pandemic to pass by. This happened to Moon, who’s now an entrepreneur focusing on selling homemade baked goods until a week before. Being a 4th-year dental student, she was hopeful to finally start her clinical rotations regularly and train to become a dentist and maybe one day a surgeon, but all her aspirations were put on hold, and now, it is hard to go back because of the Military Coup that happened just a year later.
While she was suddenly free and everyone was in quarantine, Moon just decided to enjoy the time in her apartment and not do anything for a while. As usual, it got boring after a few months, and she started experimenting with baking cakes after buying a big oven and a sound mixer with the gift money she received from her dad. Nothing was serious, and she did not start selling anything as they were still experiments, and not every cake turned out great. She noted that she was “wasting away money to distract herself from the pandemic, wasting her youth.” She made it sound like “youth” was all she had and losing it would mean the end. So comes the baking that boredom caused her to go back to her even more nascent youth and enjoy playing with flour and measuring unit details with the hands of a one-year trained surgeon to do the decoration with a steadiness that she used to lack before.
There was happiness, and there was hope. She said it was out of curiosity that she started selling these cakes. With a family and parents who could support her for all her needs and wants, Moon had never needed a job. The bakery “Moon’s Cake My Day” was born out of a necessity to show up to the world. The pandemic served as a buffer, “a gap year,” to try and see how life could have been otherwise. Entrepreneurship was not the goal, and there was no problem to solve aside from figuring out recipes that friends and family liked. Only by thinking and reflecting now that she said, “I was trying to free myself.” The COVID-19 pandemic had made going to university obsolete, and staying in Moon wanted to have control over her life. Sidney Mintz (1996) suggested that tasting food has some relation to tasting freedom making ways of expressions unavailable in daily lives as slaves, and like the Caribbean slaves before, by creating these cakes and selling them, Moon was experiencing the freedom that the pandemic had taken away from her. Locked in her apartment, baking cakes led the way to control, which led her to regain independence from fear, ultimately creating greed. Now that she felt free, she wanted to gain more of it. Fair!
Though this was her first ever “job” and first time creating income, as someone who has not struggled financially a day in her life, she was less impressed by the money and more stressed that she had not made enough to pay off her initial investment in buying all the equipment. The business was always meant to serve her way out of dependence on her parents, though not entirely possible; Moon “wanted not to cause more burden to her parents through this pandemic.” That was when she decided to take marketing more seriously. From selling to just friends and within the same circle, she started buying advertisement spaces on social media and putting more effort into creating a brand out of all the cakes. The relatively restrictive menu of cheesecake and strawberry shortcakes expanded into a whole selection consisting of matcha roll cakes, and experimental Molten Lava Cream Cakes and fan favorites such as Basque cheesecakes and more. Creating recipes had now become less of a science and more of an art project, and a passion was born out of it fueled by money; the capitalist drive was real and happening for Moon. Everything was deeply personal, and there was a sliver of an aspiring entrepreneur being brought to life as she was putting all of herself into the cake, reminding me of an artisan cheese maker who said, “When you put a piece of cheese down, you put a piece of yourself down.”(Paxson, 2013) A small yet dedicated customer base had been founded, and the world opened for her after she received a car to make the deliveries herself. All was well till the Military Coup happened on 1st February 2021.
The bakery took a step back as the roads were blocked by protests by thousands of people and students, and lives were lost in front of school gates. She “joked” joked about a few cakes going bad because she could not deliver them and was too shocked to take care of them or give them away to neighbors. The resilience of life and the market’s readiness amidst the crisis surprised her when she received an order text from a customer three months into the coup. It was an order for a simple birthday cake from the brother of a younger sister who was turning 16. (Moon never really remembered her customers, not until then.) Baking her first cake in three months was all but a disaster. The passion was still there, and the process was simple; baking a cheesecake was never a problem, but the order was not for a cheesecake, which she only found out after putting two in the oven. A Basque cheesecake is a more complicated endeavor, and the timing and ingredients must be just right to meet her standards. Having baked many of them and having wasted two whole cakes when the prices of all the ingredients were at an all-time high, she paid utmost attention to making this cake right. It was a turning point for her and her business. In these more challenging times, baking cake was becoming meditative. Her cakes, delivered through hardships, crossing military checkpoints to COVID-19 5th wave patients with oxygen shortage, were also becoming what Heather Paxson (2013) called “unfinished commodities.” More meanings were added upon by the customers and the collaborative art of navigating the harsh reality that was not there before and the drivers who have become more crucial than ever form a working and delivering landscape of the endearing post-pastoral mindset.
Business went back to usual, but there were some changes in the price. More people were ordering Moon’s cake than ever before. Her social media efforts paid off, and the page experienced a growth spike. Now, she was even using her profits for donations as she wanted to give back. Baking and selling these cakes now means more than ever as she started embodying the entrepreneur who gives back to the community while crafting who she is as a person. A new identity was formed through this process of making values out of baking for herself, becoming more than just a baker. Creating quality goods while maintaining lower prices overall while the country’s whole economy was going bankrupt was no easy feat. Still, like many others, Moon challenged the political and economic ideas of times of crisis. (Paxson, 2013). With the mindset of not returning to the dental university of the military government joining many students who decided to join the Civil Disobedient Movement, Moon was dead set on opening a bakery cafe in the near future until 1st March 2024. On the day one of her friends received the notice letter for mandatory military service after the Junta activated the Conscription Law. It was on 10th February (BBC, 2024). Now, Moon, like many other youths in Myanmar, is trying to get out of the country and settle elsewhere. The bakery is no longer open, and she is in the process of selling off all the equipment and stock. “Moon’s Cake My Day” is no more as of 3rd March 2024.
Food entrepreneurship in Myanmar was a thriving business model and still is, for many youths who cannot find jobs or lack the financial, social, and economic capital to find opportunities overseas. Many are still selling homemade dishes, drinks, cakes, and cuisine of all sorts through social media and driving services as it is only a minority who can leave the country as they wish, Mandatory Conscription Law or not. Moon is hopeful to return to Myanmar one day and “open a bakery for sure when the conditions are better.” For now, though, the story is about taking a detour to Bangkok and, in her words, “who knows where” from there.
References:
Mintz, Sidney. 1996. Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture and the Past. Beacon Press.
Ng, Kelly. (2024, February 26). Myanmar: Young people attempt to flee ahead of Conscription Order. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68345291
Paxson, Heather. 2013. The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America. University of California Press.
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