Mahar Yangon took over Little Yangon’s space last month on the top of the hill in Daly City. They did a minor facelift of the space to make it more modern. The menu contains dishes that cost between $5.99 to $8.99. Everything we tried was served ‘SE Asian street food’ sized, i.e. its probably the size you’d get if you try to get a breakfast at a roadside stand in Yangon.
Everything tasted like what your mom would make you if your mom were Burmese, i.e. homey food. The flavors weren’t bold, and the spicing restrained. I’d love to hear opinions about more dishes here, as they have a pretty wide menu.
Pan Thay Noodle- coconut curry. Same base as mohinga, I believe. Mild and laid back coconut curry with pieces of chicken and some crisps sprinkled on top. Pretty neat.
Okra egg curry. Came with a mildly sour and spicy curry that coated the okra, potatoes and egg first hard boiled then fried. I’d prefer if the curry came on a few notches bolder.
Garlic noodle. This was a good one, though probably the least Burmese dish ordered. Al dente flat rice noodle with crumbs of fragrant, crisp and crunchy fried garlic sprinkled liberally on top. Finished in no time.
Tea leaf salad. Similar to the okra egg curry, its mild and laid back. Fried garlic, fried mung bean and sesame added quite a bit of savoriness to the dish.
Looks like Mahar Yangon has redone their menu and moved away from the cheaper smaller dishes towards more standard size restaurant dishes. Recently, we had:
Mhee Shay (rice noodle). There’s contrast between the prominent soy bean flavor, and the sharp pickled vegetable flavor, and on top of that there was a little heat accompanied. The stew meat was dry and tough, but the noodle was very pleasant to eat.
Beef curry meat with chunks of potatoes. Its not a curry stew, but the curry was more of a concentrated paste that’s mildly and cooly spiced with the likes of cloves, cumin and lemongrass. The beef a little dry, but the dish was delicious.
The Ba-Kyan is sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaf. Seasoned sticky rice with sausage, shitake, pork, chicken, pork belly, peanuts, dried shrimp, salted egg yolk with bamboo leaves imparting a grassy flavor. Cheap, and pretty nice.
Overall, a pleasant meal. I think I would keep trying their other dishes if I am in the area. Anybody else been? What’s your experience?
I asked if the group running the joint is related to Little Yangon, and the gentleman says no. Apparently they live in Vallejo.
Kyay-oh noodle soup with pork or chicken. I thought we ordered chicken on the recommendation of the server. Though now thinking back, the chunks looked and tasted like pork. Nonetheless, its a homestyle rice vermicelli noodle with a mellow broth. The meat chunks were tasty though the fishballs were not salted and bland. Overall, a homey bowl of noodles.
Shrimp chin paung kyaw- sour leaf with bamboo shoot, onion, chili and garlic. The server warned us gringos before ordering that the dish was very sour. Its actually not that sour but rather just right. The leaf itself imparts the sour flavor, which works well with the rest of the salty bamboo shoot and onion components. Slight heat. We liked it.
Baya Kyaw- I call them Burmese falafel. Pleasant flavors. Though I prefer the texture of Middle Eastern falafels. Work better with the hotter chili dips on the table versus the dip that came with the bayar kyaw.
Overall, a nice meal and I was warned off the shu-shel and was told that its was very spicy. But since I was warned about sourness of the Shrimp chin paung kyaw dish and it turned out to be only moderately sour (and just right) to me, I am inclined to give the shu-shel a try next time.
