A Burmese food adventure (in Aung Maylika)

We couldn't get enough of Burmese food... so on Memorial Day, the family (including JP, Ate Maddie, and Kuya Allan this time) trooped to Aung MayLika one more time to savour the unique flavours of Burmese cuisine. 

Our lunch started off with lahpet thoke (tea leaf salad), which is a mix of lettuce, tomatoes, nuts, pulses, and fermented tea leaves, with a dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice. According to the server, the salad typically also contains shrimp paste; but because of my allergies, this was removed from the salad. Ate Maddie doesn't like spicy food so the jalapeños were removed as well. This dish was so good... we ordered it three times over the course of our meal!

Aside from lahpet thoke, we also had samusas paired with chili sauce. This is a mix of mashed potatoes, peas, and spices wrapped in a thin wheat-flour pastry sheet and deep-fried. It's savoury but the flavours didn't pack the strong punch I've learned to expect from Indian samosas. 

Aung MayLika offers what I think is a variant of lahpet thoke: tea lead rice salad. In this dish, the fermented tea leaves, the nuts, and the pulses have been mixed in with boiled jasmine rice and lemon juice. It's delicious by itself but I found myself preferring the lahpet thoke more. This was the first rice dish served at our table so it was a good base to pair the other dishes with.

And then we received a great counterpoint to the flavours and crunch of the lahpet thoke: the hearty flavours of the ohn no khauk swe (on the menu, it's called "golden noodle salad"). It's chicken coconut curry paired with rice noodles, wonton chips, onions, chilies, and another dash of lemon. This is one of the rare coconut-based stews that I appreciate because it's not too sweet. The coconut lent creaminess to the dish and the chicken added to the bite. 

If the ohn no khauk swe was subtly sweet, the mango swai (I think that this is cream dory fish) was not shy at all. Note that in this dish, fish fillets were stir-fried and mixed with mango puree and fresh mango strips. Herbs imparted a fresh feeling to the sauce dish, balancing out the sweetness. It worked really well with jasmine rice; it could work well with the tea leaf rice salad or the coconut rice BUT the flavours could become overwhelming pretty fast.

We got a variety of meat-based dishes as well: tender pork, beef kebat, and lemongrass chicken. All of these dishes featured stir-fried meats sautéed with bell peppers, onion, and garlic. As I munched through these dishes, I started getting an understanding of the patterns in Burmese cooking. The cooking methods and the base ingredients were similar. What made each dish unique was how it was flavoured. The beef kebat had tamarind and lemon juice for the tangy taste, paprika for the heat, and masala for a complex flavour I couldn't describe but is reminiscent of Indian cuisine. The tender pork reminded me a lot of the savoury pork dishes I've tasted in Chinese restaurants. 

And the lemongrass chicken? 

It was so delicious that the dish didn't reach me (seated at the far end of a long table)... everyone (except me) tasted it and gave it praises. I need to return to Aung MayLika to try it out for myself. In the meantime, I'd just take their word for it.

Another successful food adventure with the family. We travel the world a plate at a time. But we'll keep coming back to Burmese food, for sure, because it has flavour and texture combinations that are so distinct.