Good Eats: Burma Superstar

Unknown musicians often describe themselves as a mix of more popular and established ones. How many times have you heard of a band described as a mix of Led Zeppelin, U2, and Radiohead, or some other such combination? Yeah. So when Burma Superstar, a restaurant located in the Richmond -  the area where much of the city's Asian population resides - described itself as a mix of Indian, Chinese, Thai and Laotian/Vietnamese cuisines, I met that claim with skepticism. But in addition to being someplace my brother wanted to check out, the restaurant came at the recommendation of my friend Toby, who is from the Bay Area and cooks at one of the best restaurants in Madison. We waited 45 minutes on a Monday night, so I was intrigued by what I might find inside.

The signature dish is the tea leaf salad, complete with tea leaves from Burma/Myanmar, which has been featured on the Food Network. My brother and I decided we at least had to see what it was about. Myself being on a curry kick lately, having recently tasted excellent Thai and Nepalese curries, wanted to see what the Burmese had to offer; at our waitress's suggestion, we got a saucy noodle and curry dish. To complement the noodles, she suggested we go with a sauteed dish, specifically the mint chicken, another specialty, and the coconut rice, which was a must to accompany the chicken.

I won't draw out my judgments unnecessarily: the food was absolutely incredible. It was both familiar and exotic; inspirations from other cuisines were combined to make something undoubtedly unique. All the dished we tried worked well enough with their primary flavors, but also contained a complexity and depth that really required rumination.

The tea leaf salad came out first. I expected to be eating whole tea leaves, however, they were chopped up  almost in a paste and served in a bed of lettuce, along with other vegetables. Fried garlic and other crispy additions such as peanuts, sunflower and sesame seeds gave the salad wonderful texture, while a burst of lemon juice added a nice acidity. Each bite was different and seemingly better than the last. It took a while to taste and process all the flavors and texture combinations, but Chris and I both agreed end result was a terrific salad.

The mint chicken was the most surprising dish, again, completely different different than I had envisioned it. Oily, with whole sauteed garlic cloves and spicy red peppers, it reminded me a lot of a Szechuan food, but the addition of mint clearly made it Burmese. Alone it was good, but mixed with the sweet coconut rice it was almost orgasmic, a perfect pairing of  flavors. The coconut rice itself must have been made with the creamy top part of the can (see it for yourself sometime - non desert coconut milk should have a thick creamy "head") and came topped with crispy fried shallots.

The curry noodles were equally as good as everything else. They had a delicate flavor accentuated by green onion. Unfortunately, I have almost no clue was to what spices and other goodness went into the curry. This was the most Thai-like dish, almost a saucier, curry version of Pad Thai.

Myanmar only very recently re-opened diplomatic relations with the United States. I can only hope that this means we get more of their delicious cuisine here. If I'm ever back in San Francisco, stopping by here will be a must, to try some of the dishes I we didn't have room for:  Burmese Samusas, Pork and Pumpkin Stew, the other two curry noodle dishes, chili garlic shrimp. I can't wait.