As Chahak Mittal tastes the specially-curated delicacies of the Thingyan Food Festival at Burma Burma, she finds herself on a journey through the land of tamarinds and bamboos
The very first step inside the Burma Burma, DLF Mall of India, Noida, reminded me of Kolkata in the sixties, a tad bit more vibrant. When you run your eyes across the green and brown walls, with striped, wooden window sills, the chandeliers that appeared to be made with bamboo sticks, you seem to be turning the pages of history. The ambience reminded one of how the British rule gave rise to mixed colonial styles of architecture where local material like the Burmese teak was used. A wide hanging shelf on the right was full of Burmese dolls and books.
While strolling through the mall in search of some soul-satisfying food after a tiring day at shopping, we found out that the outlet had an ongoing Thingyan Food Festival. This is Burma’s answer to Thai Songkran, Cambodian Chaul Chnam Thmey, Laotian Pi Mai, and Indian Holi. The Thingyan or A-Kyo Nei marks the beginning of festivities as it is the Burmese New Year.
We started with the Bamboo shoot and water chestnut soup. A recipe from the hills of Kachin, the tender bamboo shoot soup with dill leaves was more of a fusion with Indian flavours. Bright yellow, with chopped bamboo shoot pieces, the soup tasted sour and a bit too salty.
The Crunchy corn salad, the next dish, can certainly be rated as the best of the evening. With crisp golden corn kernels, hand-mixed with sweet and tangy tamarind dressing, the salad was flavoured with chopped brown onions, sliced carrots, cabbage and scallions. Crispy on the upper and soft on the inside, the dish could be termed as the perfect starter.
Next up was the Quack quack palata — a dish one could eat even on a full stomach. The dish was a Yangon (erstwhile Rangoon) tea shop-special where a flaky palata was filled with minced mock duck, finely-chopped tofu, cottage cheese, garlic and ginger. It reminded one of an Indian parantha, though it was a bit crispier and with heavy stuffing of disparate ingredients. The palata was served with a mint chutney, nothing short of the typical green chutneys in Indian households.
We tasted the palata with the two types of sauces out of the four on the table. One, tamarind chutney, which perfectly incorporated the sour imli flavour; second, a sticky paste-like chutney, not meant for those who don’t like it too hot as it had spicy, roasted red chillies alongwith a hint of sweetness of jaggery. How we wished we could take the latter home! Well, our wishes did come true as we flipped to the last page of the menu that had listed its saleable items. One of those was the spicy sauce as well, with a jar only for Rs 250.
The Malar noodle bowl, a dish of thick flat noodles from the Shan region served with vegetables and soya in a curry was up next. The noodles, wider and thicker than an inch, were a blast of flavours in our mouths as they tasted of everything from tamarind, garlic, tofu, brown onion, scallions and chilli.
Moving ahead from the main course, we ordered some coolers and steamed buns. First was the Oh no tamarind mocktail. The super-chilled drink was undoubtedly the most sour thing we had ever tasted. As much as the thought of the drink’s sourness would salivate our taste buds, we could also feel our jaws tingle as our eyes squinted at its very first sip. Well, the next cooler was just its opposite. The cranberry, watermelon, rose and cherry mocktail gave us a chilling welcome to the Burmese land. A rose petal on the top of the brew appeared like a cherry on the top of a pineapple cake. Full marks to both the coolers, however the former one, we felt, could have lessened its tanginess.
The steamed buns, which looked like round white idlis from the top, were soft as cotton balls and had brown onions and roasted chillies as their filling. Softest on the outside and mushy on the inside, the buns can make for a great snack.
Well, one last thing was still left — desserts, which too didn’t fail to make us crave for more even on a full stomach. Out of the two, the first one was the Yay-Gei-Tho. The coconut ice-cream dessert was presented in a coconut shell and had crushed peanuts, ice apples, nata-de-coco, fruit jellies as its toppings. As one bit into the ice cream, one could taste bits of creamy peels stuck on the walls of the coconut as well. This dessert was more than just soul-satisfying and heart-melting. The last one for the evening was Rangoon Ruby, a coconut, lemongrass panacotta and black sesame ice-cream, served with yuzu curd and poppy seed crumbles. First the mind-blowing presentation. Two plates, one with a dried, frozen red rose was brought to the table and before you would even realise, the chef crushed its petals on the cheesecake-like panacotta and ice-cream. Well, this one-of-its-kind dessert grew delicious with each bite. The paapad-like waffers on each side tasted of peanuts and as if they were dipped in peanut butter and jaggery syrup, balancing the dish’s abundant flavours of rose, cranberry, vanilla, caramel and cream.
Not just one, we found more reasons than we could count for visiting the place for an encore.
(The festival is on till May 5.)