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For the longest while, whenever I did one of my Ethnic Eats in Elmhurst ethnojunkets, we’d pass by the vacant storefront at 81-04 Broadway and pause wistfully at the tantalizing promise of a new Burmese restaurant opening soon. And now, Sophie’s Rangoon Kitchen has fulfilled that promise. Outstandingly.

When I entered, all of the tables were occupied – which was just as well because I wanted to try more than one dish (Burmese cuisine is one of my all-time favorites) – so I ordered three to go:

Laphet Tote (you might see “thoke”) – Pickled Tea Leaves Salad. In Myanmar, tea is not only drunk, but also consumed as food. Laphet is the Burmese word for pickled or fermented tea leaves; tote means salad. In addition to the tea leaves, traditional additions are cabbage and tomatoes plus add-ins like tiny dried shrimp; the dressing, often garlic oil, lime juice and fish sauce; and the all-important “crunchies” – expect fried garlic and fried onion, fried broad beans and toasted soybeans plus peanuts and sesame seeds – all mixed together and garnished with green bird’s eye chilies and slices of fresh raw garlic. Sophie’s rendition was everything I hoped it would be.

Nann Gyii Tote – Curry Noodle Salad. Chicken curry over rice noodles (mix well) plus hard-boiled egg and fish cake, garnished with a lime wedge and cilantro; medium spice level. Simple and superb.

Kyay Oh Sichat – Garlic Vermicelli Meatball. It’s offered with either chicken or pork meatballs and as a soup or dry (shown here); if you choose pork (as shown), it also comes with a few slices of pork liver. Savory garlicky vermicelli with fish paste, fish ball, quail eggs and a perfectly cooked hard-boiled chicken egg, along with Chinese broccoli, it’s served with bone broth and a dipping sauce that’s simultaneously sweet and spicy. (The photo at the top of this post was my attempt at plating the takeout order for the sake of detail.) Do not miss this one!

Every bite represented authentic Burmese home cooking at its finest. In all the years I’ve been writing about ethnic food, I have visited only a handful of restaurants that I intend to keep returning to until I’ve tasted everything on the menu.

Sophie’s Rangoon Kitchen is one of those restaurants.
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

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I don’t know precisely how many posts I’ve published on ethnojunkie.com; I stopped counting when I hit 1000. But I can tell you that the number of times I’ve suggested that you go somewhere and get something post-haste can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand.

This is one of those posts. The “somewhere” is Burmese Hut, a new stall in Elmhurst’s HK Food Court at 82-02 45th Ave (definitely not to be confused with its short-lived Burmese predecessor) and the “something” is their fantastic Laphet Thoke. Laphet is the Burmese word for pickled or fermented tea leaves and thoke means salad; in Myanmar, tea is not only drunk, but also consumed as food.

There’s no set ingredient list for laphet thoke, but there are four key elements: the tea leaves plus some other veggies like shredded cabbage and tomatoes; the add-ins like dried shrimp; the dressing, often garlic oil, lime juice and fish sauce; and the all-important “crunchies” – expect fried garlic and fried onion, fried broad beans and toasted soybeans plus peanuts and sesame seeds – all mixed together and garnished with green bird’s eye chilies and slices of fresh raw garlic. But basically the performance is entirely up to the chef.

And in this case, the chef is a virtuoso.

On last weekend’s Ethnic Eats in Elmhurst ethnojunket, my guests who had spent time in Southeast Asia were very familiar with the dish, having enjoyed it more than once. I like it so much that I spent years perfecting a recipe for it. And after all the experiences of their eating and my cooking, we concurred that this was absolutely the best, most outstanding version any of us had ever tasted.

Go there. Go there now. Order their spectacular Laphet Thoke. And tell them ethnojunkie sent you.
 
 

A couple of months ago a few friends and I ventured out to Amayar Kitchen, a Burmese restaurant in Maywood, NJ (a rather remote location – or so it seemed to me). Here’s a quick overview of our lunch that day.

From the Appetizers section:

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Veggie Fritters – a tempting assortment for starters.

Burmese Tea Leaf Salad – known to all at the table as Lahpet Thoke, but the menu shied away from all but a few Burmese designations.

Tofu Salad – the yellow tofu is a clue that we’re doing Burmese cuisine. It gets its color from yellow split peas and turmeric.

From the Noodles section:

See Jet Noodles – roast duck with garlicky noodles.

Bait Noodles – named for the seaport on the southern tip of Myanmar, the noodz are topped with shrimp, sausage, a fried egg, beans and bean sprouts.

Aung San Fried Rice with roasted beans, a fried egg, and Three Layer Pork Curry – the special of the day. (I’m guessing that “three layers” refers to the pork belly stripes!) The best dish of the group IMO.

Desserts:

Assorted Burmese Cakes/Jellies

Coconut Sticky Rice Cake in Banana Leaf – sweet roasted coconut inside a dumpling made from pounded sticky rice, the most intriguing of the lot.

I do wish the food had been a little more hard-core, but I’m guessing that they offer what the location would likely accommodate. Delightful folks: we wish them all the best!

Amayar Kitchen is located at 111 East Passaic St, Maywood, NJ.