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.

Daw Yee Myanmar Cafe

111 N Rural Dr., Monterey Park, CA 91755  —  (626) 573-8080

 

© The Minty 2014