I have only lived in Thailand for nearly a year and in that time I had very little experience with even Thai food, which i have grown to love. I had never tried any Burmese food so when the invitation came along to visit the only restaurant of its sort in the area, I jumped at the opportunity.
I was ordering without a clue because I have no idea what is good and what isn't. Thankfully, a member of my party had been here before and recommended the "Tea Leaf Salad" which is now one of my favorite things to eat. I can't really explain it but this salad has just the right combination of flavors and textures. It also has a slightly citrus taste to it and no spice, which if you have ever had Thai food is a real concern with basically anything you order.
This dish is called "nga bpao" and i have no idea what is in it other than the fact that it is fish and the sauce is a bit tangy almost like a sweet-and-sour dish. The menu simply says it is fish with Burmese sauce. It disappeared pretty quickly so that is a pretty good indicator that it was ok.
The "ner lung", which was a vegetarian meatball containing tofu, disappeared before i could get a photo, so i had to take this one from the interwebs. They were tasty, but at least for me it wasn't such a stellar flavor to warrant the near attack that they received once they hit the table.
Overall i would say that I quite like Burmese food, especially the tea leaf salad, which was just outstanding. However, I did find most of the dishes to be very oily, which according to my "veteran" friends, is a normal attribute of Burmese dishes. If this restaurant had been more expensive than your average Thai restaurant, I would probably choose to eat at a Thai restaurant instead. It was nice to not have my mouth be on fire for once though and this is one of the pitfalls of Thai food - they simply enjoy putting mouth-destroying levels of chili in just about anything.
Therefore, I would recommend Burmese food for anyone that needs a break from the constant spice assault that one can expect from your average Thai curry dish.
