I had an awesome experience in my first Burmese restaurant at Mingalaba in Burlingame, CA. Burmese food is very similar to most Southeast Asian food. It is a Chinese and Indian fusion.
For our starters, we had the Lap Pat Dok, also known as the Tea Leaf Salad, and the Rainbow Salad. The tea leaf salad was interesting. It is not like eating leaf at all. The tea leaf is fermented like chinese pickles. The taste is rather neutral. It is not sweet and nor salty. The salad was served in roasted garlic, peanut, and shredded cabbage. Mix it all up and you have a tea leaf salad that’s lightly mixed in peanut oil. The aroma and crunch of roasted garlic and peanut makes up the bulk of the dish. The Rainbow Salad was my favorite of the two. It’s got 18 different ingredients, mostly tropical fruits, shredded vegetables, and roasted garlic. This is mixed in a fish sauce dressing.
For our entries, we order a couple of dishes like the Beef Curry and Burmese Style Pan Fried String Beans. The string beans was delicious! It reminded me of the Malaysian Belacan Kangkong. We also ordered two noodle soup bowls. The Ong Noh Kaw Soi (coconut chicken soup) and the Moo Hing Nga (catfish chowder). Both were delicious but I must say, the Moo Hing Nga was fabulous! The menu describes it as a catfish chowder but in my personal translation, it is more like the Malay Laksa. The Moo Hing Nga is a tamarind based broth that is puree with catfish. Yummy!
