See me demo how to make a weeknight Burmese-style stir-fry with Kat Sacks of Epicurious here Listen to my conversation with Steve Boss of KRUU here Listen to our interview on Splendid Table and read about tea leaf salad here Burma Superstar Publication Date: April 17, 2017, with Ten Speed Press.įor a list of food / eating recommendations in Myanmar, read Where to eat in Myanmar Still, we wrote this book in the spirit of hope, as well as also a tribute to the blend of Chinese-Burmese dishes that have made Burma Superstar a beloved San Francisco institution. Today, it's hard to feel as optimistic with the Rohinga humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State and the coup in early 2021. When we were working on this book, though, the country was hopeful for the future, running a democratic election that gave power to Aung San Suu Kyi's party. So will the incredibly complex history of a country that had been walled off for half a century. Visiting places such as Mt Popa, Bagan, and the tea-growing area Namhsan will stay with me for the rest of my life. While working on the book, I was incredibly fortunate to travel to Myanmar twice in 2015: once during the dry season, when papaya was everywhere, and once during the monsoon season, where the central plains turned lush. But they soon got used to having me around. For starters, the restaurant didn't have any of its recipes written down, so I headed to the restaurants to talk to everyone in the kitchen. On the first day on the job, I showed up at the Oakland location with a notepad and pen, and the cooks thought I was the health inspector. While I'm used to taking restaurant recipes and shrinking them down to fit the needs of a home kitchen, this project started out differently. Between May 2014 to June 2016, I worked with Desmond Tan, owner of the Burma Superstar restaurant group, to create a cookbook that looked at Burmese food through the lens of a San Francisco restaurant.

Burma Superstar by Desmond Tan