Myanmar

Clever Queen and Dr. Rabbit took me to Burma many times as a child. Eric B. Hare’s stories of the Karen people of Burma (now Myanmar) were well known and well liked in my community. I will also never forget the road trips with his grandson and another friend, singing at the top of our lungs, during my freshman year of college, but that’s another story. It’s surprising to me that a country I felt such a connection to as a child is so unknown that Anthony Bourdain chose it for season 1, episode 1 of Parts Unknown: https://www.cnn.com/videos/bestoftv/2013/04/15/ab-anthony-bourdain-episode-1-entire.cnn

I admit that as an adult I didn’t encounter Myanmar until I went looking for it. I watched The Bridge on the River Kwai (from the library), The Railway Man (on Netflix), and I listened to The Hidden History of Burma by Thant Myint-U (from the library). To add some fiction, I read The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker and Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan.

Burmese food is a great discovery! I love Thai food. I love Indian food. Situated between the two is Burmese food. My mother suggested trying Aung MayLika when it first opened in Concord in 2019. Suzy ordered the red curry, loved it, and was happy she got the mild. Mom enjoyed her vegetables with tofu and Dad's crispy chicken was exactly what he wanted. I was especially excited about the salmon with pumpkin, two of my favorite foods cooked perfectly together.

This last December, I discovered that Aung Maylika has three locations when Carmyn, Austin, Tris, and I ordered take-out from one in Benicia. Carmyn had sesame chicken and coconut rice, Austin had chicken curry, Tris had noodles with vegetables and tofu, and I had the lemongrass tofu. The medium spicy had a nice kick.

I was expecting more of the same cross between Indian and Thai when I took Kristen, Christy and Emily to Yoma Myanmar in Monterey Park later that same month, but I should have remembered that Myanmar has representatives from 135 ethnicities; this was completely different. Kristen can’t eat peppers and the owner’s suggestions and modifications were perfect. Between the four of us, we had the vermicelli soup, garlic noodles, chicken potato curry, tofu salad, rice, and tea. The soup is delicious, and so are the garlic noodles and curry. I’m not sure any of us were excited about the cold chickpea tofu in the salad, but the dressing is good. I poured it over the hot rice and liked it a lot. The tea instead of water kept us warm on a cold and rainy day. The owner kindly gave us coconut jello for dessert and it was the perfect ending to a great meal.

Nobel Prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi is probably the best known Burmese person. After finally coming into power, she has drawn criticism, but the movie The Lady, which covers her years under house arrest for promoting democracy in Myanmar, is more powerful than I expected, and I recommend it: https://tubitv.com/movies/601876/the-lady

If you have signed up for Kanopy through your library and want more videos about Myanmar, the most hopeful might be:

· A Thousand Mothers - Buddhist Nuns in Myanmar

· Golden Kingdom

· Sittwe: Youth Dialogue on the Buddhist/Muslim Conflict

For art and music, I found:

· A short clip on conserving Buddhist art of Myanmar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVJfeb6Xn-k

· Traditional music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjcbkaozxXs

· More contemporary music by a young man (I can't read the beautiful writing, so I can't say much more): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozQpEorg7yE

· Additional high quality popular music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bykXTmRfC9Y

There are beautiful places to visit in Myanmar https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-myanmar/ and yes, I would love to go! I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Myanmar and throughout the world.

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash