burmese delights

as a south east asian, in as much as possible i would like to share things of interest relating to the region. as a filipino, it is a given that i get to share bits of things about the philippines. so when some other south east asian stuff comes, i would jump to the opportunity.

aside from filipino, i do have some basic knowledge of thai, vietnamese and a little bit of malaysian food. but here comes the opportunity to try burmese food.

ZUU&HEIN Myanmar Tea House is a burmese food place in ikebukuro with google map details in here. it is on the 2nd floor of the building located beside this beautifully lighted quite famous alley.

^{here is my submission to the #pobphotocontest. you can also check out the hashtag for those interested. mikuni koji is an alley lined with old style retro bars.}

for starters, wikipedia (yes i know that it is not the best of sources) says that burmese food can be generalized as "sour, salty, and spicy" and has influences from its neighbouring thailand, india and china. that was enough to get me excited.

it was a small shop with heavy chinese influences. but something clicked! it was a familiar feeling, a shared experience of a south east asian perhaps.

in our defense, we were there for the experience, and to have more experience, we ordered as much food as we can minus the rice. rice has to be taken out, rice makes you full fast. rice is a staple food in south east asia but burmese rice most probably has the same texture as philippine rice so there was no need to try that.

^{nan gyi thok}

^palata

the first set of food came. the noodle salad was light and fresh. i could probably eat this on my own as a main dish. probably because of the egg and some other toppings, this reminded me of a dish from home.

the palata version we ordered had a bean paste (or curry) filling. newbies would surely love this. and before i forget, the fried fritters came with a sweet, sour and spicy sauce (wikipedia got this right). that sauce tied everything together.

^{fried food platter}

^shumai

next came the fritters platter. this i assume is a combination of best seller street food. the stand outs out of this are the banana wrapped one and the onion battered one. i am sorry, i really don't know the names.

we ordered shumai as well, not really a burmese food but we needed some protein. all the food we had were mostly carbo and veggies so far.

^{fried banana}

^samosa

it was clear that we enjoyed that fried banana. i think south east asians have a shared love for bananas; we also have a version of fried banana in the philippines as well.

and lastly we tried the famous samosa with spiced potato fillings. i'm sure it must have tasted good on its own but at this point, we had too much oil in our system. the sauce saved this for me.

^{here is another look at that alley beside the restaurant in phone camera night mode.}

we ended the dinner in full appreciation and renewed understanding of the south east asian street food culture. for my burmese friends out there, hope you can suggest which food to try next.

as always, take care.
AMPING KANUNAY!

_{all content is by yours truly unless otherwise specified}

^{all photos are taken with a galaxy s23 ultra}