Note to readers: This is the first installment in a series called Kitchen Encounters, conversations with local chefs and other restaurant industry workers who add diversity and depth to the distinctive food culture of South Florida.
With all due respect to your sixth-grade geography teacher, when was the last time you had a meal from a country you couldn’t find on a map?
Bordered by nations that produce the Asian cuisines you know and love — India, China, Thailand and Vietnam — Burma has managed to remain a culinary mystery. Which is what happens when tourism is undone by ongoing political upheaval that includes a name change to Myanmar after a 1989 military takeover. (The U.S. government still calls it Burma.)
Chef May Aungthet, of Boca Raton, is working to introduce South Florida to the food of her homeland (which she also calls Burma) one pop-up dinner at a time.
“Most people say, ‘I’ve never heard of it, and that made me want to try it.’ That’s perfect. That’s who I’m catering to,” she says.
To be seated at one of her dinners, as we were on a recent evening at Sunset Cafe in Boca Raton, the air perfumed with delicate waves of curry, coconut and ginger, is transporting.
Attractive dishes arrive, displaying not the intricate aesthetics of the omakase bar (chefs as jewelers), but the unfussy, natural beauty of the everyday. Pops of color — green Chinese parsley leaning against the sunny center of a soft-boiled egg — foreshadow the bright, bold flavors to come.
Of course the realization that, more than likely, no one else you know has had this dish, this authentic Burmese food experience, produces its own frisson of satisfaction.
Aungthet recently paused to chat about her food while preparing a favorite dish in her Boca Raton kitchen.
THE CHEF
May Aungthet, 30, is a native of Yangon (the former Burmese capital once known as Rangoon) who moved to South Florida when she was 8. Aungthet has a degree in culinary management from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, and has worked in kitchens such as Morimoto at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, The Grille on Congress, and Chef David Bouhadana’s Sushi By Bou.
For the past two years, Aungthet has hosted a series of sold-out, pop-up dinners featuring Burmese food in spots including Palm Beach Meats in West Palm Beach, NOBO Brewing Co. in Boynton Beach and Sunset Cafe in Boca Raton. Aungthet believes that she and her one-woman company, Ahmay’s Cuisine, are the only source of professionally prepared Burmese food in South Florida. The next event on her schedule is part of the family-style Sunday Supper Series at Palm Beach Meats on Feb. 19 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. For information, visit PalmBeachMeats.com.
Find out more about Aungthet and her upcoming events at AhmayCuisine.com.
THE DISH
A staple of daily life in the country and an ubiquitous street food, “ohn no kyawswe” is a kind of Burmese chicken soup for the soul. The stars of this flavorful and fragrant dish share equal billing: chicken that has marinated in turmeric, ginger and garlic sits on a bed of noodles swimming in a broth of chicken stock thickened with chickpea flour and coconut milk, punctuated with fish sauce, MSG, chilies and other spices. The surface is ornamented with lime, Chinese parsley, shallots and half of a soft-boiled egg, sliced open to reveal its bright yellow yolk. Tucked into the bowl is a split-pea fritter.
THE ENCOUNTER
While creating a pot of “ohn no kyawswe” in her Boca Raton kitchen, Aungthet spoke about the cultural relevance of the dish, food traditions in her homeland and South Florida’s evolving dining culture. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Can you describe Burmese cuisine for people who may be unfamiliar with it?
A: Burma, which is now called Myanmar, is located next to Thailand and China, so they take a lot of their influences from those countries. A lot of fish sauce, lime, coconut milk. They do use MSG in everything, and a lot of seafood, because it’s right by the water.
Growing up, and you hear this a lot now with Asian chefs and other culture chefs, as a kid I brought my food in from home to school and I was always made fun of. We all went through it. I never thought about introducing anybody to Burmese food.
But slowly, my friends started to taste it, realized they loved it. Then there was a boom with Asian food, restaurants opening up, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and I thought, well, Burmese needs to be on the menu.
Q: Your dinners typically sell out. What is your sense of how South Florida is evolving as a more adventurous dining community?
A: I think maybe in the past two or three years it’s starting to become a little more diverse, and people are more open to it. But it could be a lot more. That’s another thing that’s been happening in South Florida — people are no longer going out to dinner just for the sake of going out to dinner. They want an experience, they want chefs to come out and talk with them. We’ve had a lot of Food Network [shows] to thank for that, where people are more interested in the behind-the-scenes “whys” and “hows.”
Q: The dish you’re making, what is it called, and why is it a favorite of yours?
A: “Ohn no kyawswe” is the dish. It is with noodles, a coconut chicken curry soup. That was always something that was a weeknight dinner, it was easy to make, my mom always had it. In Burmese culture, let’s say a friend is doing you a favor — walking your dog, watering your plants — and they won’t accept money, of course. It’s a favor. In our culture, you always have to give them some type of meal, and this is a soup that’s always easy to make and that you will go home with. It’s always used as “currency.” It is everywhere, basically on every menu. It’s just a comforting soup.
Q: Your mother taught you how to make it, and you named your company, Ahmay’s Cuisine, after her. Do you have a childhood memory of making the soup with her?
A: She always handed me little things that a kid could make at the time, plucking cilantro, or mixing the chickpea flour in with your hands. It also comes with a split-pea fritter, as a garnish, and that was another thing that I learned how to make with her. It’s easy but at the same time it’s tricky, because there are no written recipes anywhere. It’s all about learning consistency and how it acts in the oil when it’s being fried. It’s a trial-and-error process.
Q: You’re making this soup from memory?
A: Basically, yes. There is no written recipe. You taste it along the way, and there are three staples to it: It has to be sweet, it has to be salty and it has to have sour. As long as those three are balanced, then it’s good.
Q: What do you think about while making this Burmese soup in Boca Raton, Fla.? Does it feel strange? Or does it make you feel more connected to Burma?
A: I’d say more connected. It’s like I’m right back in my childhood home, my grandma’s house, and it’s a normal, everyday dinner.
Q: Do you remember the first time you served your soup to your mom?
A: [Laughs] She always critiques it. That will never change. [Laughs] She’ll always say it needs a little bit more sugar or it had too much sugar. But the best thing about Burmese food, when you’re in Burma and at any given restaurant, food stall, street food, they always have spices in the middle of the table, and you are able to customize it to your liking.
So the chef may have prepared it one way, but if you like a little bit more fish sauce, you will not offend the chef by adding more. Every bite on your own plate can be different. That’s also another beautiful thing about it. No matter what it is, what dish, it could be soup, it could be curry, they’ll always have chili, lime, fish sauce in front of you at the table.
Q: You prefer to call your homeland Burma, but it was Myanmar when you lived there. Why did your parents come to the United States?
A: Growing up, it was always called Burma. I continued it. There is a lot of political turmoil happening there. The name Myanmar comes from the fact that the military changed the name. Everybody that’s there still refers to it as Burma. There’s not a lot of opportunities there. Dad came here first and thought, “I have two daughters, there are no job opportunities in Burma.” To anyone else who’s never been here, America seems like the land of opportunity, right? You can do anything, you can achieve anything. It was a debate between Japan and America. I don’t know his reason, but he ended up here in Florida and then brought the family over.
Q: Would you recommend a visit to Burma?
A: I would recommend it. It’s beautiful there. The food is amazing. Everyone wakes up at 5 a.m. to go to the market to get your food for the day, no one is going to huge grocery stores or stocking up. Everything is made fresh every day. It’s beautiful. I went back in 2018 for my sister’s wedding. It was a huge family wedding. They served four or five different curries, coconut rice and saffron rice. It was comforting, it was fun.
Currently there is a war happening, where the military took over the government. There’s not a lot of press covering it. There’s a coup happening right now, and it’s not a safe place for anyone to visit, and it’s really dangerous for anyone living there. It’s a scary time. They need a lot of help. But, hopefully, when that is resolved, soon, it’ll be a lot of fun for anyone to visit.
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.
