People don’t come here for the food, but they should.
Burmese cuisine hints, in a soft whisper, the flavors of its neighbors, India, China and Thailand. There is the crunch of fresh herbs, a squeeze of lime juice, stir-fried veggies with slices of garlic in oyster sauce and biryani. They don’t hit the food with nearly as much fish sauce, and the curries are lighter.
Yet the food holds its own in a bold way.
The papaya salad is not as tangy as the Thai style. Bought for 1,000 kyat (or 66 cents) from a food cart — which is the only way one should buy papaya salad in Burma — mine was tossed in a thicker peanut sauce, and the spice from chili slices broke through the nuttiness.
Fresh salads are a nice contrast to the heat of the weather. Tea leaf salad, or lahpet thoke, blends the muted bitterness of tea leaves with sliced onions, cabbage and beans. My waiter recommended her favorite, a dark bean paste salad that I enjoyed, but would not recommend for people shy about big flavor. It is quite literally a paste that looks like mud plopped on a plate. It is very salty, but it’s balanced by pungent red onion slices.
The curries are delicate compared with the loads of spice in Indian curries, but they are still flavorful. Mohinga, a yellow fish curry served with angel-hair-thin rice vermicelli, is a national dish of Burma. I also had an aubergine curry stewed with onions.
Me being a noodle lover rather than a rice lover, I went twice to a green food cart by the side of the road on a row of restaurants. The sign was only in Burmese script, no English. That’s always a good sign. They make piles of vermicelli and a slightly thicker yellow noodle with a spicy peanut sauce, served with garnishes of chili, onion and lime.
I missed out on so much. I didn’t get to try more fish dishes, other curries and salads. I’ll either have to seek out a Burmese restaurant in the Bay Area – I hear Burma Superstar is good – or I’ll just have to come back.
Where to eat:
- Mr. Bagan: Modest setting, authentic food
- Any papaya salad food cart, and the green noodle food cart pictured above
- The Moon Vegetarian Restaurant
