I was very excited to get a message from a friend in London who was taking her man out for his birthday dinner to Mandalay, which is a very good Burmese restaurant in London, one of the few Burmese restaurants outside of Myanmar in the world. There is also a very good one in San Francisco and a couple in New York, if anyone else knows of any others, please let me know!

Burmese food is really it’s own thing and I highly recommend trying it out if you get a chance. Kat’s message follows:

I just got back from the restaurant and the food was fantastic! I had that coconut chicken noodle soup (Kaukswe) that you recommended and it was divine! It reminded me a bit of Penang Laksa only better ‘cus they use chicken breast which I prefer! So no bones or funny offal stuff that you sometimes get in noodle dishes. I had battered veg for starters a bit like tempura and some lovely chicken samosas. For dessert I had a tapioca pudding in coconut milk (a bit like Gula Melaka) and Jake had a lovely semolina cake (pictured above).

Jake’s main was chilli tiger prawns served with lentil rice, we also had a side of okra (lady’s fingers) in soya.

I had a long chat to the owner, whose a charming Burmese man. He’s also also lived in Malaysia and Singapore so he explained that there are some similarities to Nyonya Cooking with some Indian influence. I think he’s had this restaurant (a family business) for at least 20 years. I will definitely be going back there! Considering we ate so much, not to mention our consumption of Tiger beer–it was actually a very reasonable price.

Next time you’re in London, get in touch and we can have a feast at Mandalay!

Now if that doesn’t sound fantastic I don’t know what does, but I am such a Burmese food fanatic I could eat it every day without a break. Burmese breakfasts are renowned as well. It was also really interesting to hear about the similarities Burmese food shares with Malaysian food, which I hadn’t connected before.