meemalee

Mohinga, Burma's Breakfast of Choice Bursting with contrasting textures, fragrances, and flavours, mohinga is a Burmese catfish chowder served over rice vermicelli. It's the breakfast of choice wherever you go in Burma, and considered our national dish. As soon as we're back in Yangon, my family and I will devour bowl after bowl of mohinga, brought home in huge metal tiffin carriers from the nearest street vendor, or eaten in situ at our favourite stall. Heaped with crispy split-peas, slices of soft duck egg, bouncy fishcake, and fresh feathery coriander leaves, with extra fish sauce and lime to squeeze on the side, it's hard to know when to stop, and for many, their love for mohinga borders on obsession. Mohinga is usually made with small river catfish known in Burmese as nga gyi, nga ku or  nga yunt which I believe are related to the Pangas catfish. While you can't get the same fish in the West, I've found that a combination of tinned mack...

© Wagaung By the old Moulmein Pagoda, Lookin' eastward to the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin', And I know she thinks o' me Less than a fortnight ago, I found myself on Kipling 's fabled road to Mandalay . Hubby and I had landed at Mandalay International Airport , about an hour's drive from Mandalay proper - "international" being a mildly amusing misnomer as the only planes which fly in and out of this white elephant come from within Burma itself, apart from the occasional flight to Kunming . © Wagaung The journey to the centre of town is a joy - noisy, dusty, beautiful and bumpy with all manner of picturesque traffic like sidecar rickshaws, scooters and beasts of burden. I love Yangon with all my heart, yet it's not till I get to Mandalay that I feel that I've truly come home. But that's all shove be'ind me -- long ago an' fur away, An' there ain't no 'busses runnin' from the Bank to Mandalay; An' I'm...

I'd been meaning to go Mandalay on Edgware Road for a looooong time, seeing as it's pretty much the only Burmese restaurant in the whole of the UK. However, I was always a teensy bit put off by the fact that the owners and chef aren't actually Burmese (they are Indian) because I was worried about authenticity. I'm not discriminating - I'm equally dubious about Japanese restaurants run by Russians or Thai places run by Chinese folk . Their website compounded my fears by its lack of one vital ingredient - pork. Burmese people love pork so much there's even a saying about how it's the daddy of all meats ( or words to that effect ). But hubby and I trundled along dutifully one lunchtime to test it out. Firstly, the decor. Shabby chic is the best I could think of. There's various Burmese artifacts adorning the walls and several magazine reviews too (many from Norway, which is where the restaurant hails from originally , so I have no idea what they actually...