Burmese night at The Wild Garlic

On Friday night we held a succesful evening where I let MiMi of meemalee's kitchen take over my restaurant and cook Burmese food for the night ...

Why would I let someone take over my restaurant for a night and cook food I know nothing about ?

A question that will take a little longer than my usual twitter 140 characters to answer.

I guess the nub of my answer is the same reason 44 customers booked blindly to come and eat ... an interest in food and a different culture. I know MiMi does great food and has one of the best food blogs around (here) plus she is working on a cookbook ... hopefully she'll leave a comment with more details.

The practical ... Asian food isn't that hard to provide for a group ... its bulk rice and pots of curries, salads and cold foods ... there was a couple of dishes cooked to order but that's a whole lot less than any normal evening. Its not something I could do daily as MiMi and Simon spent two solid days on the preparation and we have hours between services to do our prep.

MiMi did a brilliant job of preparing a dozen or so dishes, about the right amounts for the customers, her and Terry plated and sent the food out well and on time for the evening.

How was the food ? ... there are some other bloggers who will describe better than I can ... lost in the larder for example, for me the food was interesting, some really good, like cinnamon chicken, and some I didn't enjoy ... I'm not going to hurry to eat century egg salad again but it was something I'm glad I tried, other customers disagreed and loved the salad.

The food is very different to most asian foods I've tried but I would choose to eat Burmese again. It has subtle flavours like Thai but light heat and spicing so very different too. The food was all very well cooked to a professional standard, by MiMi and her husband Simon who seemed to spend several days just chopping onions !

The customers, I think, felt pretty much the same, it was good food, it was mostly locals in, who block booked the restaurant within days of us deciding to host the night, for a great night out and a very different experience and we delivered that succesfully

Well done MiMi ... and good luck with your next popup !

Burmese Night at the Wild Garlic

Friday 1st October

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Christophene Fritters
Gorakhar-thee Jaw

Matpe Bean Fritters
Bayar Jaw

Charred Tomato Salsa
Pun-tway Byaw

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Wood-ear Mushroom and Bean-thread Vermicelli Soup
Jar-zun Hin-gah

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Fish Ball Salad
Nga-pè Thoh(k)

Century Egg Salad
Say Bè-Oo Thoh(k)

Green Bean Salad
Bair-thee Thoh(k)

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Cinnamon Chicken
Je(t)-thar Hin-mway

Mogok Pork Curry
We(t)-thar Hnu(t)

Tomato and Coriander Prawns
Bazuhn See-Byun

Straw Mushroom, Oyster Mushrooms, Baby Spinach
Moh Hin-Noo-Nwè

Burmese Coleslaw and Shrimp Relish
Gorbee Thoh(k), A’Ngun Jaw

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Coconut Sorbet, Tapioca Milk and Brioche
Mohn(t) Le(t) Saon