Fermented Tea Leaves for the Holidays

Not that I would ever turn down roast turkey, cranberry sauce and squash casserole with the hopefully removable little marshmallows. But sometimes during the holiday season your taste buds yearn for something a little different. Maybe something like fermented tea leaves, pickled mango curry, and thousand-layer fried bead, all topped with delicious ShweJi. Boy have we found the place.

Mandalay provides a change of pace for the holidays.

Entree seven, flat rice noodle stir fried with chicken.

The Burmese food here was so good, I returned with David Furst for another visit.

Actually at least six crummy but good fans have been pushing for us to visit the Mandalay Restaurant. Mary Seng sang about the taste and beauty of the Burmese cooking and Sarah Eno recommended the cream of wheat cake, the ShweJi with its rich coconut cream, raisins, milk and poppy seeds baked a golden brown. I went, I ate, I'm conquered.

If you get caught up in the heavy traffic on Baltimore Ave, it's easy to drive right past the Mandalay. The restaurant sits down low on the east side of the road and with its bright red and yellow signs looks like another muffler shop fallen on hard times. The inside walls are hospital green and the furnishings sparse, but the Myint family -- father, mother, three sons and assorted cousins - will quickly welcome you and catch you up in their hospitality and dedication to good food. My constant companion, who never strays far from two favorite Asian dishes, was delighted with noodle entree #7, a flat rice noodle stir fried with chicken, bean sprouts, lettuce, green onion, ground peanuts and topped with egg. I was overdue for a dish of pork chunks simmered with pickled mango curry (pork dish #10.) At the end of the meal, I apologized to our guide, Jonny Ellison, for changing her plans to take us to her own favorite local restaurant. "Next time," I said, "We'll go to your place."

"The heck we will," she replied. "We're coming here."

PS. On a later visit with WAMU's David Furst, I did try MoHingar, the traditional Burmese breakfast fish and noodle soup (good) and Let Phet Thoke, the traditional guest-greeting fermented tea leaf salad (interesting). David ordered two different dishes, obviously enjoyed them and then asked to see the menu again. In response to my quizzical look, he said "I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to order next time." And that, my friend, is the bottom line for deciding a restaurant is good, when you find yourself making immediate plans to come back.