Burma Bellissima: Brand new restaurant, Société Rangoon, is dedicated to cuisines from Myanmar

When you hear that celeb chef Zaw Mahesh from the famous restaurant Lahpet in London is in town to create a menu for a local Burmese joint, you show up. You also show up, because why would you give up the opportunity to eat delicious food prepared by one of the leading experts in cuisine from our closest eastern neighbour?

Also read: This Bengali Food Festival at Novotel Bengaluru Outer Ring Road is perfect for some Pujo glutonny

We landed up at the eatery (before it even had a name) for a special table with the chef and what catches our attention before anything else, is his infectious smile. To be able to make people love your food, starts largely with making them love you and this chef does this exceedingly well. His love and passion for Burmese cuisine filters down into finesse and detail in every creation.

We start our tasting with Shan Tofu Fritters, featuring sweetcorn and tamarind sauce — a familiar beginning; and then moved on to the Lahpet Thohk — the pickled tea leaf salad with fried beans, cabbage, tomato, chilli, dried shrimp, sesame, garlic oil and peanuts. The salad, needless to say, was perfect and it was no surprise since chef Zaw chose to name his establishment in London as a homage. We were however pleasantly surprised by the Gin Thohk — the ginger version of the lahpet, replacing tea leaves with ginger — that absolutely blew our mind with a flavour profile that was at once, familiar and exotic.

Next up, was the Khayan Thee Phote — a grilled aubergine dish with fried shallots, chilli, peanuts, coriander, garlic oil and lime. We paired this with Chef Zaw’s Masala Fish — a sea bass fillet served with aloo roti, tamarind, coconut and curry leaves. These two fulfilling dishes were also complemented by servings of a Shan Noodle — rice noodles, mock meat, tomato, pickled mustard greens and sweet soy peanuts; and a Ohn-No Kauk Swe — egg noodles with chicken, shallots, spring onion, paprika oil, crispy noodles, egg and lime. This was a very hearty course and we were already quite stuffed.

Also read: 'Bong' Apetit! Here are five best Durga Puja meals in Bengaluru

For our last course, we tried the National dish of Burma, Mohinga — rice vermicelli, fish soup, channa pea fritter, boiled eggs, lime juice and coriander — and we must say, we’re happy we kept this fragrant ‘dal-fish’ soup for the last. It was stunning!

Meal for two: INR 1,800 onwards. At JP Nagar, 2nd Phase. 

Email: romal@newindianexpress.com
X: @elromal