Burmese Food Festival

The festival was relatively small. It was in a park and was about the size of a large get together in a park. If you didn't know about it, you probably would not have guessed it was a festival. I felt that it lacked the "authenticity" and ambiance of the Thai festival. No temples or anything like that.

The entertainment consisted of various people getting up and singing Karoke in Burmese. It was God awful and CONTINUOUS. If you want to hear some kickass Brotha's singing, go to www.notoriousmsg.com.

The food was extremely authentic and in my opinion too "advanced" for American tastes (as was conveyed by Mrs Dog, who is Caucasian but very adventurous). I am Taiwanese so I am accustomed to "advanced" food. But even some of the food they had there was a little funky for me. Many of the booths had the same things. Pictured here is a sampling of pork stomachs, ears, and tongues stewed in soy sauce. We eat this all the time on the Taiwanese table, so I thought I would start with something I was familiar with and enjoyed. It was GREAT. Gelatinous goodness with a great flavor. They only difference between this style and Taiwanese style is the spicy orange colored sauce they had for it. This made it awesome. Slightly tangy with a great flavor. Nice crunch in the pig ears and the tongue was firm and flavorful.

There was nothing written in English so I can not tell you what we ate. We had no idea what we were eating. We just picked things that looked interesting. This dish started out as a shredded cabbage and vegetable slaw in a bowl. We thought that's what it would be. Then they ladled over this soup. So we were wrong and it turned out to be a soup. It tasted like a Burmese version of chicken tortilla soup. There were fried won tons in it and bits of pork meat. Then they also had chick peas and potatoes. Slightly tangy, but not a sour soup. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great.

Next were these fried vegetables and the orange sauce again. I think it was some sort of squash? The batter was heavier than a tempura. It was pretty good. Rather oily though.

Beef on a stick. This had a strong flavor. I can't describe it (and I am usually pretty good at identifying flavors). I guess the sauce was peanut sauce, but it tasted nothing like peanuts. It wasn't bad, but again, not that great. Cucumber salad was mild and good, but kind of uneventful and similar to Japanese pickles, but very light

Mrs. Dog wanted something sweet. She was going to get an ice cream cone. I said "You can't eat that here, you have to get something authentic" So we got this. I HATE milk by the way. Its probably the only food I can say I hate. Mrs. Dog loves things like rice pudding. Rice with MILK! I am wretching just typing that out! This was some sort of milk drink flavored with rose flavoring with green balls, chunks of gelatinous red cubes, pieces of ice, ice cream, cake, and pieces of milk custard squares. There was a lot of stuff going on in this desert! Mrs Dog said it was rather funky and sweet and ate about 1/2 of it. I tasted some and it tasted like 7 courses of milk (with chunks). I am the wrong person to give a review on this as I hate milk so much.

Welcome to milk Hell. Just kidding. Other people may like this. It reminded me of what your sink would look like if you were cleaning up after a 2 year old's birthday party and I just couldn't get past it.

Monks with cell phones. I just found this interesting so I snapped a picture; and it goes back to my authenticity comment. I don't think Buddha is with Cingular so I cant use my in network free calls to call him without paying. Salvation should be free