Alice fell down the rabbit hole and somewhere down there, Bangkok and Burma got all jumbled up. Culinary-speaking, that is. We had heard Bangkok was the stuff of foodie dreams—cheap eats to die for at endless stands of street food, homey kitchens serving up delicious spicy noodles and soups, alongside Thai fusion and elaborate high-end hotel breakfasts. We expected great food to basically rain down on us, amidst lively markets, temple sightseeing and nightlife. In contrast, Burma, we were told, had terrible food. Oily curries that turned one acquaintance into a fruitarian during her stay there. Get your fill of amazing food while you are in Thailand, was the advice.
True to the lore, the food we ate in southern Thailand, while staying at the Golden Buddha Resort on Ko Phra Thong, was exquisite. In each curry, the spices and herbs were well balanced in such a way that the dishes were simultaneously simple and complex. Each flavor—ginger, garlic, lemongrass, coconut and chili were the usual suspects—was distinct and identifiable, yet combined so that the whole proved to be greater than the sum of the parts. Vegetables were abundant and cooked to perfection: green curries with melt-in-your-mouth zucchini, yellow curries studded with earthy carrots, and a particularly tasty leafy broccoli sautéed in a slightly sweet, slightly savory soy and garlic sauce. A noteworthy dish served to us featured banana blossoms tossed in a coconut chili sauce. The heat was intense, but not overwhelming, and counter-posed with the creaminess of coconut, the dish as a whole was addictingly good. Feeling a cold coming on, I ordered a chicken soup one afternoon. Swimming in the pale yellow turmeric-infused broth were large sticks of lemongrass, cloves of garlic, coins of ginger—the most refreshing hot soup I have ever eaten. And, my cold was gone the next day. The banana fritters—baby bananas fried perfectly to be crunchy-on-the-outside, doughy-on-the-inside—were served piping hot with local honey, and were of course, delicious.
After our four days at the Golden Buddha, we headed to Burma for a week, prepared for bland, oily food. Our first evening in Yangon, staying in Chinatown, we walked out for a late night bite to eat on the street, our expectations low. The street was teaming with vendors, selling gargantuan fruit (jackfruit, papayas, dragonfruit and more), and all kinds of meat, noodles, and fried things. We grabbed two plastic stools at a noodle stand and arbitrarily picked two dishes—Mandalay noodles for Drew, Shan noodles for me. At first bite, I was in heaven. I have no idea what spices were put into that bowl—I know fried garlic was key—but the noodles were ridiculously tasty. Thin rice noodles, little bits of ground pork, green onions, fried garlic and…secret sauce?? Whatever was in there, it was delicious. We thought, its Chinatown, so maybe this is where the good food is? We left Yangon and headed to Inle Lake, thinking again that good food was behind us. And then…we found Lin Htet. Quite possibly my favorite restaurant of the trip, and an establishment I know I will be dreaming of for years to come. Let me be clear. When you go, you must order: Shan noodle salad, mixed vegetable salad, and you should probably also order: tea leaf salad and avocado salad. I’ll start with the Shan noodle salad. Unlike our Chinatown meal, these noodles were ‘dry’, meaning they did not come in a broth, as in a soup. Instead, they had been stir-fried with a healthy amount of greens, garlic, quality pieces of juicy pork, and again, some kind of Burmese secret sauce that I hope to figure out how to re-create one day. I really can’t put into words how good these noodles were, but I can tell you that we licked the bowl clean the first, second and yes third time we ordered these noodles during our three days at Inle Lake. The mixed vegetable salad is a close second in my books, and I again can’t quite describe why they were so good. I know it helped that they were cooked to the ideal consistency—not too crunchy, not too mushy—and that they were tossed with an excellent dressing that had peanuts, garlic, ginger, some chili (but not too much) and a lot of love, amongst other spices. I could eat those mixed vegetables every day and not get sick of them, of that I am sure. Their tea leaf salad—crunchy, nutty, slightly bitter—was also excellent, and the avocado salad—a hefty plate piled with chunks of creamy ripe local avocados dotted with tomato slices, salt and a lemony dressing—speaks for itself.
Inle, and the home cooking of Lin Htet, was the highlight of our Burmese culinary adventures, but Bagan also did not fail to disappoint. Lonely Planet steers one in the right direction when they recommend Aroma II (get the vegetable korma) and Be Kind to the Animals The Moon (crazy name, delicious food, order lime and ginger juice with your meal), but they forgot to mention the breakfast noodles at Black Bamboo. We had a tasty dinner at Black Bamboo—the tofu made of chickpea in tomato curry was particularly memorable—and on our last morning after a magical sunrise hot air balloon ride, we decided to head back there for a late breakfast. Drew ordered the breakfast noodles while I was boring and ordered muesli and yogurt. One bite of his noodles and I changed my mind—the muesli went into a takeaway container and a second plate of noodles arrived. These noodles were thicker in diameter than many of the thin rice noodles we’d been eating—closer to spaghetti size—and came lightly dressed with shallots, fried garlic, cilantro and a diced bright yellow-in-the-center hard-boiled egg. They were flavorful, surprisingly light and hit the spot. We spent the rest of the trip wishing we could have those noodles for breakfast again.
Fast forward through Cambodia (only food highlight there, a fantastic vegetarian restaurant called Chamkar at which you must order the melt in your mouth eggplant curry along with ‘wedding dip’ made from coconuts and cashew), and we touch down in Bangkok. It’s 10pm and we are itching to go out on the town and EAT! We have a lackluster rather oily bowl of noodle soup with icky fish balls across from the hotel but I blame it on the fact that we are staying around Patpong Market—essentially a red-light district (oddly also home to our Le Meridien hotel). We head to Chinatown and I’m ready for a noodle and snacky street food bonzanza. But oddly, nothing really looks that appealing. And in fact, a lot of the street food looks positively UNappealing—bad quality meat, overly fried items, and noodles that just look ho-hum. The ubiquitous signs for shark fin soup also make me uncomfortable. We are a bit confused but figure its Chinatown—we should figure out where the real Thai food is. I won’t retrace our steps through our disappointing culinary tour of Bangkok, but suffice to say after three days, we were somewhat bewildered. We nibbled our way through Chatuchak market (one of the largest open air markets in the world), we wandered around old Bangkok stopping in for a late lunch at Krua Aporn, an unassuming relatively cheap establishment voted one of Bankgok’s best restaurants, we tried out a higher-end ‘chic’ eatery for dinner, and yet an absolutely delicious meal, street food or not, proved elusive. We craved the delicious noodles of Myanmar, a country whose cuisine has been thoroughly dismissed in favor of Thailand’s supposed culinary delights. To be sure, the food we had in southern Thailand met if not exceeded our expectations—but we assumed that Bangkok would top even that. Perhaps it was a fluke, perhaps we just missed the mark entirely during our three days there, but in any case, we are here to dispel the myth of bad Burmese food. If you stay away from the curries (which are indeed oily), which is not very hard to do, you are likely to enter a world of deeply satisfying meals, served to you by people who seem proud to share their cuisine, and who have been spared, at least so far, the hordes of tourists that roam the streets of Bangkok.
clarebeardrew 