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| vol. 51, no. 15 |
Topics |
Page Two |
Masthead |
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Mandalay Is Well Worth a Trip Across the Park By Tina Lee Mandalay restaurant is a great restaurant to treat friends visiting the city, hold a casual birthday celebration, or relax with your coworkers after a long work week. This is also a great restaurant for those of you unfamiliar with Southeast Asian cuisine because the menus are printed in English and the waiters are happy to assist. I noticed the venue lit up festively as I walked passed the corner of 6th Avenue and California Street, smelling the pungent spices in the air that really take your senses by surprise. I learned throughout the meal that the photographs, although helpful, do not do justice to the entrees themselves. We started off the night with tea leaf salad, which I initially did not want to try because the menu photo looked like piles of raw nuts and peas that should have been cooked before being presented to the customer. It is not your typical western leafy salad topped off with thick dressing. The waitress explained each portion to us: the Burmese tea leaves are ground down and mixed with lentil seeds, shrimp, fried garlic, green pepper, sesame seeds, peanuts and dressing. She proceeds to mix the ingredients together in front of you to transform the separated piles into a rich pesto-like spread complimented with cherry tomatoes. The nutty-herblike salad spread deserved the title of their signature attraction hands down. The next platter was the crispy vegetarian samusas, fried pastries containing lightly curried greens and potatoes, served with sweet chili sauce and arranged around freshly picked cucumbers. This hybrid between an egg roll and a samosa almost symbolized the blending of Chinese and Indian culture in a politically neutral manner. The first main dish was the Burmese curried beef with potatoes. I personally am repelled by the strong dose of curry powder in some Indian dishes, so I preferred their version of curried beef as a lightly flavored stew. Another dish I highly recommend is the Mandalay Special Noodle because of the coconut and peanut sauce that really brings their broad noodles and juicy sautéed chicken to life. I would not necessarily recommend the Mongolian Beef, not because it was bad, but because you can find it at any Chinese restaurant; to use the opportunity to try more authentic Burmese dishes would be wiser. Last but not least, we finished the meal with fried banana arranged around glasses of strawberry ice cream. I typically avoid this dessert at most Thai restaurants but Mandalay really complimented the fried batter with just the right amount of sweetness from the bananas. I really like how attentive they were to mundane aspects of the meal to enhance the whole experience: sweet bing cherries to our glasses of water, rice cooked with coconut milk, and not one but two waitresses plus the hostess checking on us every ten minutes to make sure we were enjoying the food. Overall, it was one of the best experiences I have had so far at a restaurant in San Francisco. The only downside is the location, on the other side of the park; you can not just dine at Mandalay during a lunch break between classes. But on a cold Friday night or for a Sunday brunch, I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone. You get great Burmese food at a good price served with a smile. Mandalay Restaurant Tina Lee is a first-year pharmacy student. |
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