One of these days I have to write up a post about how amazing and nutritious traditional Burmese food is — until I have enough time to do so, I will satisfy myself with raving about some traditional Burmese medicine. In Myanmar they have several grades of turmeric, some are especially medicinal and used for various specific purposes. One of the things the Burmese use turmeric for is for purifying the blood especially after childbirth. Turmeric is often mixed with water into a paste and painted onto the face and body for about ten days after giving birth. It is also mixed with wild forest honey and made into capsules which are taken by the woman for at least two weeks after giving birth.
Every so often I really miss Burma and the delicious variety of foods constantly available there. I spent 6 months or so in Shan State working for a beautiful hotel on the banks of Inle Lake in 1999 and got to know some of the foodways of the surrounding area as well. Kalaw isn't so far from Inl ...
Back in 1999, after studying at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park New York, I was highly disillusioned with the US -- the greedy consumer mentality and the increasing amounts of GMOs in the food (which everyone thought I was nuts for being concerned about at the time!) so I fled to Myan ...
I've been getting a bit homesick for S.E. Asia lately, in particular Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma) where I lived for a few years. I recently spent some time going through my old photos and pulled out a few of my favorites to put into this calendar. At the moment there is a 25% discount on calenda ...
I've finally put some time into sorting out most of my recipes on flickr, for any of you who haven't been to my flickr page please check it out. It is quite a project, but will help me get organized for the recipe book. As a result, I just realized I haven't posted this favorite, incredibly delic ...
Now this is an incredibly delicious and surprising way to cook an egg. Great for vegetarians as well as people who just love food. serves 4 10 eggs
4 T or so of coconut oil or olive oil
1/2 t turmeric
dash of chili powder (more if you like it spicy)
2 medium onions
2 inches ginger
10 t ...
A few years ago I was the Executive Chef of The Strand Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar (Rangoon, Burma). The Strand is a historical boutique hotel built by the famous Armenian Sarkie brothers in 1901. The Sarkies also established the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore and the E & O (Eastern and Oriental) in ...
I was just trying to sort out and put away some papers when I got sidetracked by some diary entries from back when I had just fled the United States (I used to swear there was some kind of mass insanity going on there) and ended up in Burma. I was struggling with sugar addiction at the time, along w ...
I was looking back over some of my diary entries during the time I was working in Shan State at a beautiful hotel called Inle Princess Resort on the shores of the mystical Inle Lake. During this time I was training some of the kitchen staff in baking and pastry skills as well as sourcing various bak ...
I spent a bit of time in Burma (Myanmar). In 2006 I was the Executive Chef of the historical Strand Hotel, where many deep thinkers (George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, E. F. Schumacher...) wrote some of their incredible books. Maybe that is why I resonate with the id ...
