Best dishes at Mandalay?

[Kristine]

We are going on Friday night. it's been on our list of places to try forever, but now that we are finally going I'm wondering what to order. There will only be two of us so we can't order a ton of dishes, so far I'm eyeing the tea leaf salad the paratha bread and the pumpkin or beef curry. I've heard the Mandaly noodles are good too, but I want to know what you guys like.

Thanks!
Kristine

[zfalcon]

My favorites are:
Tea leaf salad
Singapore-style rice noodle
Dry fried string beans
Curry lamb

[drewskiSF]

another reco for the Tea Leaf Salad. they don't use lettuce, which many other Burmese spots do. more authentic and helps bring out the flavor of the fermented tea leaves

[TeacherFoodie]

Yes, I also enjoy they don't use lettuce. We made one ourselves at home and it had lettuce - it just wasn't the same, but it did hit the spot since our Burmese options are limited here in Toronto.

[Kristine]

Well we never made it on Friday, husband got stuck working overtime, but we are making a second attempt on Sunday.

Thanks for all the replies, I will be sure to report back.

I'm curious about the Burmese curry lamb and the tea smoked duck. ( I know it's probably not authentically Burmese, but I'm a sucker for duck.)

[hyperbowler]

On account of the duck, I'm glad you didn't make it! Not knowing if it was an traditional item or a red herring, I ordered it last time I was there. Authentic or not, it was dried out and bordering on unpalatable.

[Robert Lauriston]

It's 100% authentic for a Burmese restaurant to serve Chinese and Indian dishes as they're part of the everyday diet in Burma. I just have yet to get one in a Burmese restaurant that was the equal of what I could get at a Chinese or Indian restaurant. It's kind of like ordering pasta in an Ethiopian restaurant.

[Civil Bear]

Are most Ethiopian restaurants owned by Italians?

[Robert Lauriston]

Pasta in Ethiopia is a holdover from the colonial era, much like pho and banh mi in Vietnam.

[Civil Bear]

Thanks!

[vulber]

sichuan fortune house in walnut creek has an amazing tea-smoked duck, and i'd imagine many of the closer sichuan restaurants also do great versions

[Thomas Nash]

Nice meal tonight -reminded us of Burma. Thanks to all the suggestions.

Excellent tea salad and mohinga and balada. Also good was the Burmese beef curry -- one sees that often in Burma.

Service was erratic.

The tea smoked duck at Yi Yuan Szechuan in Millbrae was excellent, probably the best thing at a recent meal, reported in another thread.

[grayelf]

We had slightly odd service the last time we went to Mandalay (there's an opening line in there somewhere). It may have been because they didn't seat us for 30 minutes after the appointed time of our reservation... but they made up for it with the arrival of the sweet potato jellies :-).

I don't know where tea-smoked duck originated but all my favourite renditions of it have been at Shanghainese restos, either at home or in SF (Shanghai House's).

[Thomas Nash]

I believe tea-smoked duck is actually Sichuan in origin, from a little alley called "The Mousehole" in Chengdu, according to Fuchsia Dunlop in her cookbook Land of Plenty, p 180. There is still a descendent restaurant in Chengdu. I am sorry I missed it when we were there. I have generally seen the dish on Sichuan restaurant menus. First time we had it was at a revelatory Sichuan meal in Hong Kong. Around here,what matters most is whether it has been prepared a relatively short while before serving.

According to Fuchsia, it was originally an imperial dish prepared in Beijing and brought by the inventor back to Chengdu and a restaurant he opened when he returned.

[TeacherFoodie]

When we were there in March we adored the tea leaf salad and paratha. AMAZING! We told them we wanted Burmese dishes and they made suggestions for us.

[Robert Lauriston]

Tea leaf, rainbow, and ginger salad are all variations on the same dish. I think the tea leaf version is the most exciting, though if you're sensitive to caffeine, you might not want to eat it at dinnertime.

[vulber]

also, not authentically burmese, but the housemade non-alcoholic drinks are very good; there's one signature one in in particular that i'm blanking out on...

[Robert Lauriston]

Tea leaf salad, samusa soup, mohinga / moo hin ga (fish chowder), chin mong jaw (sour vegetables), okra egg curry, and Burmese-style noodle are Burmese dishes.

Most of the rest of the menu is a mix of Indian, Chinese, and Thai dishes that you could probably get done better at other, non-Burmese restaurants.

[vulber]

yes, mandalay noodles are indeed good. i think robert nailed it.

it's not authentically burmese, but the banana blossom salad is amazing and occasionally available as a special.

if they try to bring you fortune cookies, request the sweet potato jello instead.

[hyperbowler]

Sweet potato jello? What a great tip!

I'm fond of the rainbow salad.

For reasons described above, definitely skip the pumpkin curry... it's not very good there. Make sure to taste some of their housemade hot sauce. It's true that you can get paratha at just about any Indian place in SF, but it is a great medium onto which to spread their housemade hot sauce.

[grayelf]

I also really like the balada there, just be sure to eat it while it's hot (kind of a no brainer for anything deep fried, I guess). Samusa soup has been solid though once they kinda skimped on the samusa bits. Tea leaf salad is the best I've had yet and superior to the rainbow or ginger for me as it is such a unique flavour. Go with vulber's suggestion about the jelly for sure!

There was a rather nice lemon-ginger drink as well but that was a couple of trips ago.

[hyperbowler]

That's right, the balada! That's what's great with the housemade hot sauce, not the paratha.