Two people working doesn’t allow a lot of time for the luxury of enjoying freshly prepared meals at home. While there is plenty one can do regarding food convenience, there is little we can afford to invest time-wise in the more intricate and extraordinary meals we could be indulging in. For example, this photo from nearly 10 years ago is from when I was learning how to prepare Burmese dishes at the now-closed restaurant called Little Rangoon in Scottsdale. The owner allowed me into her kitchen and shared with me how to make many of my favorites. For a time following the closure of that incredible place, I diligently made my laphet thoke (pickled green tea salad), jackfruit curry, and spinach with bamboo shoots that come with a smell that can clear a kitchen.
Recently as I’ve been able to recapture more of my time I tried catching up with my writing, scanning in old photos from slides and other materials to rid Caroline and me of stored stuff, and other things, but I have to admit that I’ve gotten rusty. Structuring our time when we have an abundance of it takes discipline and practice, sometimes we simply need reminders of what’s important. So it was just this past Friday when a friend and I visited a favorite Korean BBQ called Hodori out in Mesa, as we were driving along we passed Mekong Market and I made a note to return on our way out of Hodori. We wandered around nearly an hour as memories came flooding in about things I’d not thought about for years. I picked up half a dozen various fresh mushrooms to make an old favorite, then I spotted some great-looking lotus root and thought Caroline would love a bit of that in the coming week.
When I returned home and put away my treasures, I got to thinking about my old Burmese favorites. Mind you that 10 years ago it was nearly impossible to find fermented green tea but lucky for us the owner of Little Rangoon gave us an entire quart along with a quart of shredded pickled ginger and a few packages of frozen shredded green mango so we could continue making Burmese thokes (salads) after she closed up shop. Googling the ingredients now I have a few choices. First off though I’d need some other ingredients and decided I wanted to check out Lee Lee International Supermarket in Mesa, to see if they were still open. After over half a dozen years not visiting them I was greatly relieved that they are still in business – I do not take that for granted here in Arizona. Turns out that Lee Lee carries small jars of pickled green tea although at $10 for 11 ounces it is on the pricey side. I broke out my old notebook with recipes from the time I hung out at Little Rangoon and scoured my photo directories for the images I had taken while preparing dishes to refresh my memory.
Earlier today I made a visit to the other branch of Lee Lee here in Arizona to pick up some other essentials along with 10 pounds of onions and a bunch of cilantro so I could prepare a curry base. Burmese curry is not like Thai, Japanese, Indian, or any other curry. These big differences between curries have always been a thorn in my side when I hear people exclaim that they don’t like curry, I’m always curious about which kind? Of course, they could probably be more honest about things and just blurt out that they don’t like trying new things and be done with it, but then they might come across as being small-minded. I cooked up my onions today with the cilantro and paprika (used just for coloring) and now have a gallon of the base that will be used for pork belly, jackfruit, fish, and maybe even some mango, coconut, squash, and shrimp curry.
Back to my original point about time. I still need to fetch some Thai green chilies, roast red chili flakes, make paprika/chili oil, cook us some sambal oelek to reduce it, and finally, wait on Amazon to send me the ingredients I couldn’t get locally. When the days arrive when I’ll prepare these dishes there is some fine chopping of various ingredients I’ll have to tend to, make fresh steamed brown rice, and then assemble things. It’s not so time-consuming as to compare to the effort that goes into a Thanksgiving dinner, but it’s also something that is not as quick as simply heating something up, calling in Uber for delivery, or going out.
During the coming months not only will I indulge Caroline and me with the fiery flavors of Burma/Myanmar, but I’ve picked up some green and red Szechuan peppercorns with the numbing characteristic that makes this pepper combo so intriguing, so we can try making Szechuan style water boiled fish here at home. I also bought a bottle of pomegranate molasses for Fesenjan which is a Persian chicken and walnut stew. I’ve been bored with S.A.D. – the Standard American Diet for a long time, which makes going out to eat a chore. Because the citizens of Phoenix enjoy their food bland and Americanized we are left with little choice but to make a better effort at home. With that said there is still a Chinese place or two that are worth the effort, but Thai food is sketchy and requires us to visit L.A. for something a bit more real. San Francisco and L.A. are our only choices for Burmese, while the best Italian food I’ve ever had can only belong to Andreoli Italian Grocer and the hands of Giovanni Scorzo.
In the photo: Broad bean salad in front, on its right are Thai chilies in fish sauce, above that is laphet thoke (pickled green tea salad), and top left is brown rice. This meal was enjoyed at Little Rangoon back in 2010.