SGV: Tea Leaf Salad at Daw Yee Myanmar Cafe
I’ve been craving Burmese tea leaf salad and found Daw Yee in Monterey Park in the San Gabriel Valley. It’s a small restaurant off the busy Garvey Avenue. My noodles partner and I hit up last weekend also in search of Burmese noodles.
We thought about getting another appetizer but the tea leaf salad was quite filing. I loved the fermented tea leaves and abundant peanuts, sesame seeds and what I called Burmese corn nuts but were actually fried yellow lentils. The fried garlic is so addicting. The salad is tossed tableside for you.
I hadn’t tried mohinga before. They’re catfish noodles. My noodles partner explained to me she’s had both the Thai and Burmese versions and wanted to try Daw Yee’s mohinga. I found the noodles to be a bit too soft but the flavors were good. I liked that I could customize it with a sprinkling of pepper, a squeeze of lime and I also added cilantro to the almost porridge-like thick broth. The catfish was pretty much just little bits in the soup and not the thick filets I was hoping for.
On the other hand, I loved the kyae oh noodles which are two types of noodles with offal, ground pork (like sausage), a fish ball, a quail egg and mustard greens. We asked for the soup on the side (which oddly cost $1 more). Getting the soup on the side meant the noodles were firmer and we could have the pork bone broth whenever we wanted. I liked it but the noodles partner found it a bit oily.
I would like to try Daw Yee with perhaps a group of four and get the fried tofu, samosas and pork on a stick appetizers. I would also like to try the garlic noodles with steamed chicken. It looks as if it could be a Hainanese chicken with garlic. Although the noodles partner and I are noodles lovers, we (very) briefly thought about the various curries. If I were to try one, the mutton would be my pick.
111 N Rural Dr., Monterey Park, CA 91755 — (626) 573-8080
© The Minty 2014
Tea leaf salad is a great joy. In Burma in December and you don’t find it as much as you would expect.
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I can imagine. It’s like KBBQ isn’t everywhere in Korea like it is in LA.
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When I was preparing to study abroad, my mom asked what food I’d like to take with me so that she could pack, I said at once “La phat (tea leaf)!!” Haha. Glad you enjoy it though.
There are different versions of the Mohinga even in Myanmar for different regions, and even still, it could be different for different restaurants in the same region. People like you who want more fish would choose the restaurant whose recipe has a lot of fish in it. 😀
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