25254 Wed Aug 06 12:50:27 -0700 2003 26 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 100552 I recently did a series of articles on Burmese restaurants in Tokyo, and while I am here in San Francisco, I'd like to go to a Burmese restaurant here. I am thinking of either Burma House downtown, or Burma Super Star on Clement. I am a big fan of the fermented tea leaf salad, but want to know what sort of dishes are popular in Burmese restaurants here. Does anyone have a "stone favorite" Burmese restaurant in SF or on the peninsula? I would be able to go for dinner on August 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17 only. Please respond to the address above after making the appropriate delection and correction. Thanks and happy chowing! Link: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.p15?fg20030704a1.htm Wed Aug 06 12:50:27 -0700 2003 0 Bryan Harrell 1 100553 I checked the link on my post just now and it didn't work. FYI Article in The Japan Times http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fg20030704a1.htm Article on the Tokyo Food Page http://www.bento.com/tf-rest.html#burma Wed Aug 06 12:56:16 -0700 2003 100552 0 Bryan Harrell 2 100578 Bryan, I love Burmese food, and I've been to all those mentioned here except Burma's House. I'm read to go to anyone you want to. Wed Aug 06 15:36:17 -0700 2003 100553 0 ChowFun (derek) 3 101021 Derek, My e-mail to you keeps getting returned. Send me an e-mail ASAP, please. Tue Aug 12 12:24:47 -0700 2003 100578 0 Bryan Harrell 1 100560 Yum, Burma Super Star on Clement, one of my favorites... Wed Aug 06 13:33:32 -0700 2003 100552 0 Maya 2 100565 Yes I like Burma Super Star too. It would be a great place for a chowdown--lunch or dinner. The Burmese menus here are not at all uniform--Nan Yang in Oakland serves very different food from Rangoon in Palo Alto. Melanie started an informal survey of local Burmese restaurants a few months back. Wed Aug 06 14:14:43 -0700 2003 100560 0 Windy 3 100591 Here's the current inventory of Burmese restaurants reported on this board by various posters. Yamin Win in Los Altos and Irrawaddy in SF have bitten the dust. :-( I have heard of a new one south of market but haven't investigated yet. Rangoon, Palo Alto http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/sanfrancisco8/messages/35091.html Innya Lake, San Bruno http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/sanfrancisco11/messages/49054.html Phoenix Bistro, Alameda http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/sanfrancisco11/messages/51150.html Nan Yang, Oakland http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/sanfrancisco5/messages/18516.html Mandalay and Burma SuperStar, SF http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/sanfrancisco11/messages/49038.html Burma House, SF http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/sanfrancisco3/messages/6739.html Nirvana, SF http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/sanfrancisco5/messages/14011.html Wed Aug 06 17:43:13 -0700 2003 100565 0 Melanie Wong 1 100567 Is Mandalay still there on California? Haven't been in years, but used to go quite a lot -- really enjoyed their food. Wed Aug 06 14:24:10 -0700 2003 100552 0 Neil Spence 1 100568 If you are interested in going to Oakland, Nan Yang on College Ave. is very near the Rockridge BART. I don't know anything about its level of authenticity, but the garlic noodles with mango dish is one of my all-time favorite dishes. Wed Aug 06 14:31:13 -0700 2003 100552 0 amanda 2 100572 Nan Yang is more like a Slanted Door take on Burmese, although not quite that upscale. I really liked the lunch we had at Innya Lake a few months ago. As someone pointed out, Melanie (who else?) started doing a survey of Burmese restaurants a while back. If you do a search on "Burmese Melanie" you should turn up her reports. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/23440#89125 Wed Aug 06 15:00:42 -0700 2003 100568 0 Ruth Lafler 1 100590 I was wondering if anyone has tried Natoma Cafe in Downtown SF near SFMOMA. I passed by it a few months ago and noticed a full Burmese menu in addition to a typical lunch menu of sandwiches and the like. 145 Natoma St. (Off New Montgomery, between Mission & Howard, behind SFMOMA) Wed Aug 06 17:36:17 -0700 2003 100552 0 Kathleen Mikulis 2 100594 Thanks, I couldn't remember the name. There was one post a few months ago. A chowhound friend was there recently, let me see if I can get her to post. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/22827#85591 Wed Aug 06 17:46:28 -0700 2003 100590 0 Melanie Wong 3 100596 Cool! Thanks! Incidentally, I hadn't seen your comment about there being a place South of Market until after I posted. Great minds must think alike! Wed Aug 06 17:50:17 -0700 2003 100594 0 Kathleen Mikulis 4 100662 Natoma Cafe is a nice little hole in the wall with one of the most eclectic menus I've ever seen. I've liked most of the Burmese dishes I've tried there. The veggie fried rice is particularly good, and there's a fish curry I also like a lot. I'm pretty ignorant about Burmese cuisine, but I get the impression that most of their dishes are more like the food one would eat at home than fancy restaurant fare. They also have pretty good sandwiches and freshly made deli salads that vary from brussel sprouts and carrots dressed in a dijon sauce to Tuscan pasta salad. It's a good lunch spot if you work in the neighborhood. Thu Aug 07 11:31:28 -0700 2003 100596 0 RedRob 1 100629 I second Inya Lake in San Bruno. The flavors are absolutely wonderful. If it's in season, try the Ching Ma Jaw (sp?????). It's a green leafy vegetable cooked with a some kind of spicy shrimp mixture. Not always available on the menu since they grow it in the back of the restaurant. Wed Aug 06 22:26:27 -0700 2003 100552 0 Jennifer Stimson 2 101553 Hi, Do you have the address and phone number to Inya Lake restaurant in San Bruno, CA? I tried calling 411 and they don't have a listing. I've searched everywhere. Can you please help? Thanks, Maritess Fri Feb 13 13:33:21 -0800 2004 100629 0 Maritess 2 101554 Hi, Do you have the address and phone number to Inya Lake restaurant in San Bruno, CA? I tried calling 411 and they don't have a listing. I've searched everywhere. Can you please help? Thanks, Maritess Fri Feb 13 13:33:23 -0800 2004 100629 0 Maritess 3 101555 It's Innya Lake. Here's a link to info and their menu: Link: http://www.222.to/innyalake/ Fri Feb 13 13:58:52 -0800 2004 101554 0 Nancy Berry 1 100726 A Burmese friend doesn't think much of Nan Yang on college, though he used to like their old Chinatown location. Based on my sampling of his cooking, they've Westernised and toned down a lot. Nirvana is his son's restaurant, and more of a pan-Asian noodle place. Haven't been to Mandalay for years, remeber it was ok, but the one time I ate at Burma Super Star on Clement it was much more Chinese than real Burmese. Would love to check out the one in Alameda, tried to go recently with friends but turns out they are closed on Mondays. Thu Aug 07 20:29:00 -0700 2003 100552 0 Denise B 2 100729 I ate at Nan Yang a few times when I lived in Rockridge. It was the only "Burmese" food I had ever had, but even so I could tell it was highly Americanized. It's pretty good as Asian-Californian food goes. Their "Thai Garlic Noodles" are their signature dish that everyone seemed to love, but I always found it too sweet and vinegary. I tried Natoma Cafe for lunch today...so now I can say I've had Burmese at more than one place! I got the fried fish curry--a few chunks of fried white fish with okra, eggplant, and cauliflower in a slightly greasy green-yellow curry. No spiciness though (not sure, of course, if Burmese food is supposed to be). It didn't knock my socks off, but it was a satisfying FiDi lunch and good enough for a return visit to try something else on the menu. -Nick Thu Aug 07 20:49:40 -0700 2003 100726 0 nja 2 100754 There are chinese and burmese dishes, but the burmese dishes are by far the better ones! Fri Aug 08 12:48:15 -0700 2003 100726 0 Maya 2 100774 I'm constantly bemoaning the loss of the old Oakland Chinatown incarnation of Nan Yang. I thought it was much better, too. Among other things, the garlic noodles there were much better -- etherial noodles I still crave. The Rockridge version just isn't the same -- they don't use the same noodles or the same pork. I have no idea why they messed with perfection! Maybe we can take up a petition to bring it back! Fri Aug 08 17:16:30 -0700 2003 100726 0 Ruth Lafler 2 101010 My summer digs in SF are just above the Castro, and I have been to Nirvana a few years ago. There was virtually no Burmese vibe to the menu or the place. They are serving Pan-Asian noodles to a crowd largely unfamiliar with Asian food. There are compromises and excesses. Yet overall, the place is good. But not Burmese. Tue Aug 12 04:45:14 -0700 2003 100726 0 Bryan Harrell 1 100852 After going through all the Burma posts, the reason for the confusion over "what is Burmese food?" is fairly simple. Burma (Myanmar) is a highly multi-ethnic country, and is essentially a country of many "nationalities," the Burmese people being the greatest in number. After the British colonization and subsequent withdrawal, quite a number of ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong and other places moved to Rangoon and other cities to set up businesses. I have met some of the Burma-born offspring of these Chinese people in Tokyo, where they are now in exile and bitterly opposed to the present government. What this means is that many Burmese restaurants in the Bay Area are no doubt operated by ethnic Chinese of Burmese nationality. This explains the prevalence of Chinese dishes on the menus. Burma also borders China's Yunan province, and that area is the Shan state, which is noted for their noodles, tofu, miso and other things familiar to Chinese food of that region. I have just printed out the menu from Innya Lake and note that it is predominantly Chinese, and short on the Indian/Muslim influenced dishes common to Burma's western side. Nevertheless, trusting Melanie Wong's impeccable judgement, I plan to be going there on Wednesday the 13th. E-mail me should you want more details. Sun Aug 10 12:24:49 -0700 2003 100552 0 Bryan Harrell 2 101079 Just got to your articles on Burmese restaurants in Japan. Thanks for sharing. There has been a long-standing Chinese community in Myanmar for over 400 years. While they were not a large minority in the country until the wave of migration in the 90s, Chinese make up the bulk of the merchant class, including running restaurants. What I've been told is that if you wanted to go out for an evening at a "nice restaurant" (vs. a street stall) in Mandalay or Yangon, it would be in Chinatown and run by ethnic Chinese. So, if someone who used to own a restaurant in Myanmar immigrates here, there's a good chance she's Chinese. Further, the strong anti-Chinese sentiments that led to violence and riots in 1967 pushed ethnic Chinese out of Burma. Of the local Burmese restaurants that I've visited, all have mostly Chinese dishes with the possible exception of Oakland's Nan Yang. At Innya Lake, you'll want to focus on the "specialties" page of the menu, then there are Burmese dishes sprinkled in the other pages along with Chinese fare. A few months ago when I was trying to suss out some potential Burmese spots, I emailed an inquiry to the Burmese American Professional Society's local chapter, but didn't get a response. Looking at the pictures on their home page, their organization's dinners are hosted at Chinese restaurants. Here's a link to their food page with links to recipes and more info on the cuisine. Link: http://www.bapsusa.org/food.htm Tue Aug 12 22:58:12 -0700 2003 100852 0 Melanie Wong 2 1842283 I used to live in San Bruno and ate there at least once a week. I was there for lunch a few months ago and found the quality as good as ever but portion sizes a little smaller. Try the curried fish balls, ask for things spicy if you like them that way, they'll usually listen, The tea leaf salad is as good as anywhere I've tried. The Singapore noodles are also a benchmark dish. Wed Aug 30 03:53:51 -0700 2006 100852 10784 Scrapironchef 1 1842001 Just a note if you're planning on hitting up Burma House on Post St. - it's closed, sadly. Wed Aug 30 00:57:36 -0700 2006 100552 29536 glangorous