Burma Place

So after a long day at the San Diego Safari Park (we stayed until the bitter end!), we had to pick up our car at Escondido Lexus.  They had done the repairs on the tire and we had to return our loaner.  Even with all that going on, food was still on our minds and we decided to deviate from our original plan.  We'd had enough of burgers and sandwiches, hence we took a chance at a random place in Burma Place.  Burmese (Myanmar) food is rather hard to come by (and this one is apparently the only one in San Diego), so we put our name on the Yelp wait list and got a table once we arrived.

Naturally, the one dish we had to get was the Tea Leaf Salad.  Widely considered as one of the most popular Burmese dishes, this version consisted of romaine lettuce, fried yellow beans, garlic chips, sesame & sunflower seeds, peanuts, tomatoes, jalapenos and crushed dried shrimp tossed with fermented green tea leaf dressing.  I've had this a few times before and I've never seen romaine lettuce as an ingredient.  However, I enjoyed the fresh crisp lettuce as it broke up some of the heaviness of the ingredients.  Beyond the obvious tea flavor, the salad featured layers of texture including the firm crunch of the fried yellow beans, peanuts and garlic chips.  There was also a wealth of flavors including tangy, salty, aromatics, brininess and a touch of spice.  

Onto a relatively simple dish, we had the Salt & Pepper Fried Tofu with scallions, jalapenos fried and garlic.  Cut into bite-sized cubes, the tofu was fried beautifully where the outside was super crispy and light while the inside was delicate and airy.  There was enough seasoning that the side of sweet and spicy sauce was not necessary (although I did still use it).

To go with our orders of rice, we selected a few dishes that were rather impactful.  The first was the Garlic Pork with fried garlic, onion and fish sauce. Oh this was an explosion of rich saltiness and aromatics.  Definitely good with the rice as we could taste the soy, garlic and fermented brininess of the fish sauce.  Add in the ample amount of tender slices of pork, this was very addictive.  Didn't hurt that there was considerable amount of wok caramelization too.

Next up was the Burmese Chicken Curry, which was stealthily the best dish of the meal.  I mean, by looks alone, this was monochromatic and didn't elicit much excitement.  However, when we ate this with rice, the flavors were rich and delicious.  Loved the balance of the sauce where we definitely got hits of cumin and turmeric, but the earthiness and slight brininess ensured layers of flavor.  The chicken itself was tender and took on the spices within the curry.  Loved the potatoes too as they were tender and soaked up the curry as well.

If the Sesame Beef looks rather familiar to you, like say, ginger beef...  You are right.  This had all of the elements of the Americanized Chinese dish.  Hence, we found crisp slices of tender beef bathed in a sweet and tangy sauce.  Now unlike ginger beef, this wasn't exactly gingery, rather it was tangy in a vinegary sense.  It was nicely balanced and of course went well with our bowls of rice.

In addition to our white rice, we also go the Garlic Noodles with chicken.  Similar to a Chinese lo mein where noodles are tossed in a sauce, this one featured a bevy of fried garlic and onion as well as julienned cucumber on top.  The side of sauce was tangy with some spice.  As for the wide egg noodles, they were al dente with a nice chewiness.  Loved the crunch of the fried garlic as it added texture.  The small strips of chicken were tender despite being white meat.

Our last item was the obligatory veggie dish and it happened to be the Broccoli with Garlic.  This was a simple stir-fry that was nicely executed.  Broccoli florets were cooked through but still crunchy and topped with fried garlic and onions.  There was enough wok caramelization as well as seasoning.  Overall, we really enjoyed our meal at Burma Place.  Sure, some of the dishes weren't really Burmese, but they were delicious nonetheless.  Something a bit different than what we had been eating on this trip so far.  If we actually lived in San Diego, we'd go back in a heartbeat.

The Good:
- Well-executed and tasty food
- Friendly staff
- Lots of parking

The Bad:
- Gets pretty busy, staff are doing their best but hard to flag down

Mingala Restaurant

Usually, when one thinks of Burmese food and the Bay Area, the name Burma Superstar is always the obvious choice.  Make no mistake, I really do want to visit the place and maybe one day I will.  It just hasn't been convenient for us to do so.  But back to my point, no one thinks of Mingala Restaurant located in Fremont (except those who live there...).  It was somewhat of a random choice by my uncle when we all met up for dinner.  Looking over the menu, it seemed more like a mish mash of Burmese, Thai and Malay dishes.  

As such, we got a little of everything to start including the Laphat Thoke (Burmese Tea Leaf Salad) consisting of tea leaves, fried lentils, peanuts, chili, tomatoes, cabbage, sesame seeds and dried shrimp.  Okay, I'm not a tea leaf salad expert, but I found this one a bit bland and lacking in crunch.  With that being said, it wasn't bad though.  There was still some tea leaf essence to go with the brininess of the dried shrimp.  Next, I sampled the Pork Rib Soup which was lightly seasoned, but was meaty due to the tender pork ribs and also Earthy due to the shiitake mushrooms.

Moving onto the Roti Pratha, I found it to be a little dense, but this type of roti tends to be that way.  Maybe, they could've spun it looser or with more space between sections.  It could've been crispier and less greasy as well.  The side of curry sauce was mild, yet aromatic and successfully flavored the roti.  One of my favourite dishes was the Belachan Ong Choy with dried shrimp paste, garlic and ginger.  There was plenty of wok heat that lead to the caramelization of the ingredients.  This meant the brininess of the shrimp paste was super impactful as well as the garlic and ginger.  Furthermore, there was a smoky sweetness from the stir-fry.

For the kiddies and carb-lovers, we had the Pad Thai prepared with shrimp.  This was average in my books due to the omission of pickled turnip and pressed tofu.  I found the flavours to be one note with a slight tang and mostly sweetness.  There was a lack of smokiness from intense wok heat and the aggressive tartness from tamarind.  Textures were on point though with chewy noodles and crunchy sprouts and meaty shrimp.  Looking rather dark, the Hokkien Noodles were doused in an alarming amount of dark soy.  However, the dish ate a lot better than it appeared with muted sweetness and surprisingly mild saltiness.  The dish was a bit wet where the noodles were soft though.

Our last 2 dishes were the Hainanese Chicken and Ying Yang Noodles.  The chicken was a bit more firm that I would've liked, but it was still tender and succulent.  It was mildly seasoned where the condiments did their thing.  As for the noodles, they were saucy as expected with creamy egg sauce along with shrimp, squid, chicken and choy sum.  Despite the mess of moisture, the noodles were still fine while the ingredients were properly prepared.  In general, the meal as a whole was pleasant, yet could've used some tweaks here and there.  Whatever the case, Mingala does the job as a neighbourhood restaurant.

The Good:
- Lots of choice on the menu
- Fairly good service
- Well-priced

The Bad:
- A bit disjointed without a focus

Laksa King

Once there was this strange food stand located in a not-so-pretty grocery store on Joyce.  Bo was his name and he served up authentic Burmese (Myanmar) food from his make-shift "kitchen".  I was able to try his wares before he moved to a permanent B&M location on Hastings named Bo's Bubbles and Bits.  On many occasions, I attempted to eat there with no success as the business hours were somewhat random.  A few years later, the place has been re-branded Laksa King.  While Bo is no longer there, the place is run by a couple from Myanmar.

Arriving for a late lunch, we shared some appies starting with the Chicken Satay.  Although the chicken was sufficiently tender, it wasn't that moist and was screaming out for more char.  While the flavours were fine due to a decent marinade, it suffered from lack of depth as a result of the cooking method.  The accompanying peanut dip was thick and "peanut buttery" but wasn't too sweet.  Next up was a small order of Roti Cani.  We liked how it was crispy with a rich seared hue on the outside.  We found the inside a touch dense and doughy though.  The dip was flavourful with a big garlic hit with only the slightest of spice.

Okay, being Laksa King, we had to try the Laksa.  We felt it was pretty good as the broth was rich, creamy and flavourful.  We could definitely get the heat, shrimpiness and coconut essence with every sip.  I got half and half noodles and they were on the softer side.  I wasn't a huge fan of the shrimp as they were rubbery.  Next, we got the Pad Thai just because we have read so many bad things about it.  Well, it was okay with slightly soft noodles bathed in a minimal amount of tamarind.  The plethora of pickled turnip added crunch and zip.  What saved the dish was the side of wok-fried chili sauce as it added both spice and smokiness.

Lastly, we had the Beef Rendang which was gingery and coconutty.  The chunks of beef were fork tender.  This was a pretty decent dish, but it really needed more rice as there was only enough to deal with half of the sauce.  Overall, we enjoyed our meal mainly due to the laksa and rendang.  The satay and pad thai were pretty forgettable though.  Hence, a visit would highly depend on what you order.

The Good:
- Laksa is rich and flavourful
- Staff are pretty friendly
- Okay pricing

The Bad:
- Other items we tried were pretty ordinary
- Portions are pretty small

Rangoon

The last time I was in Kits, while waiting in line at Chewies, I spied across the street a new restaurant.  Yes, that is me.  Instead of checking out the nice cars parked on the street or the pretty ladies (aren't you proud of me Viv???), I was leering at an eating establishment with only one thing in mind... Food!  The place I was eying up and down was Rangoon.  Burmese food eh? Now really, I don't have much experience with Burmese food because it is not widely available in the GVRD. Other than Bo Laksa King's Bubble & Bits, there really isn't anywhere else.

So the whole Summer passed and with Winter looming, I got an email from the chef at Rangoon inviting myself and a guest to try out their food.  They didn't have to ask twice as I made my way down there with Miss Y.  Now here I go into my rant about authenticity again...  Like any business, Rangoon exists to make money.  Therefore, if we examine the menu, we will see things like NY Striploin and some fusions items.  I can hear the food snobs crying foul already.  I will even speak on their behalf,  "When I was in Burma...  I never tried anything like this...  So unauthentic...  this place sucks!".  Okay, we're not in Burma and neither do most people have the spare funds to buy a ticket to fly there.  We are in Vancouver folks.  The food is what it is and it is there to satisfy the higher percentage of customers.  If you want complete authenticity, then go fly to Burma.  I digress.  

So on that note, we started with a fusion dish being the Shrimp Avocado Rolls.  These consisted of avocado, green onion, lettuce, shrimp and house sauce wrapped in rice paper topped with grated Parmesan. The whole thing was rather soft, but the crunchy lettuce provided some textural contrast.  We thought that it lacked acidity, so we got a lemon wedge and that really brought the roll to life.  Next up were the Moroccan Lamb Sausages which were really good.  There was not much gaminess while the meat was moist with a slight spice.  Moving along, we had the Spicy Squid and Mushrooms (oyster and button).  The squid was tender being just cooked with a slight snap.  The dish wasn't as spicy as we would've liked, but I'm sure they were keeping it mild.

Now the best dish hands-down was the Chicken Salad. This one had a wonderful spice level where it really melded with the tang and savouriness.  The large slices of chicken breast were moist which was a nice contrast to the crunch of the cucumber.  Rounding out the ingredients were tomato, red onion and cilantro.  Onto the mains, we had 2 fish dishes starting with the Sockeye Salmon with a cream, bacon, mushroom and white wine sauce.  The salmon was cooked too much for our liking as it became dense.  However, the sauce was pretty tasty as it was rich, smoky and creamy. The other dish was the Ling Cod with a olive, garlic and wine sauce.  The cod was cooked better than the salmon (yet still slightly overdone) and it really soaked up the tasty sauce.  There was a sweet and salty thing going on with just enough impact from the olives.  We liked how the sauce did not mask the natural flavour of the fish.

Lastly, we were presented with the Polish Cheesecake. This was definitely different than what we were used to since it was drier and less dense than its New York counterpart.  Despite originating in Poland, I still prefer the more typical New York style.  Now if you were keeping score, we had Burmese, Moroccan, Polish and everything in between for this meal.  So should it be named Rangoon?  Probably not, because that just might further confuse everyone.  The bottom line is that there were some good eats to be found.  Could there be some improvements?  Sure, as with most places.  But I think the biggest issue is that there may not be enough Burmese dishes to reflect the restaurant's namesake.  Unfortunately, that is probably a reflection of the market they must cater to.

The Good:
- If we only look at the food from a purely taste standpoint, there are some good flavours at work
- For the one true Burmese dish we tried, it was good

The Bad:
- It's too bad the menu looks confused because they must cater to a wide range of tastes
- The proteins could stand to be cooked a bit less