Mingalaba

Mingalaba is a Burmese Restaurant in Burlingame, CA. This was my first time eating Burmese food. I was pretty satisfied with my experience. However, I think eating the Tea Leaf Salad, though delicious and flavorful, gave me a migraine later due to the caffeine in tea leaves. Sigh. And here I was migraine free for a long time. It could also have been the neck and back pain I've been having recently that triggered it. But alas, I'm trying to fix that as well. Anyways, on to the food.

Coconut Milk Tapioca Drink: Pretty standard, tastes like coconut milk and tapioca with bits of sliced coconut meat in there. Sweet and filling.

Tea Leaf Salad: Burmese tea leaves, tomatoes, cabbage, dried shrimp, fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, and split yellow peas. I liked how crunchy it was, the flavor is also very unique, I haven't had anything like it. This one is a must try.

Paratha: This is perhaps my favorite dish. It's a Burmese crispy pancake with curry dipping sauce. There's two sauces, one is sweeter with a slight coconut flavor, I liked that sauce a lot better. The pancake is really heavy and oily though. It filled me up right away.

Soup: I don't even remember the name of the soup, that's how forgettable it was.

 Pumpkin Yellow Chicken: Kabocha squash with stewed chicken, bell pepers, string beans, and carrots. Slightly spicy, with a coconut flavoring to it causing it to also be a little sweet. A heavy dish as well, but I liked the flavors though I don't think I could eat too much of it at once. Still tasted good a few days after when I had left overs for lunch.

Coconut Rice: Essentially steamed white rice with coconut flavor and funny little crispy things sprinkled on top.

Coconut Milk Tapioca Drink

Tea Leaf Salad (Lap Pat Dok)

Paratha

Soup

Pumpkin Yellow Chicken

Coconut Rice