[Non-halal] Fancy a Burmese meal? Check out Myat and Potatoes.
Myat and Potatoes have been on our radar for some time, and we finally ordered it for lunch a few weeks ago.
[UPDATED on March 2022: We’ve also tried their Fried Yam Cake, Burmese Chicken Curry Rice, and Fermented Tea Leaf Salad. Details of the dishes below]
Feed me, Myat and Potatoes
Myat and Potatoes is an online kitchen started by ex-restaurateur Fay Cheng to help her Burmese friends and ex-staff earn income during the pandemic. Myat is the middle name of her chef’s twin children.
We’ve never tasted Burmese food before, so we were pretty excited to try this as we’ve heard many great things about their food.
Myat and Potatoes keeps it simple with exceptional dishes
The menu is pretty simple, with only six Burmese and three Malaysian dishes offered.
You may ask: why Malaysian dishes? It turns out that these Burmese friends used to work at the popular Oriental Cravings (which shuttered after 17 years of operations) in One Utama.
Hence, they have perfected the restaurant’s signature Claypot Loh Shi Fun.
Apart from that, they also offer Bittergourd Bee Hoon and Yam Cake.
Enter Mohinga, the national dish of Myanmar
Our first choice from the Burmese menu had to be the Mohinga (RM21.90).
Considered the national dish of Myanmar, Mohinga is a rice noodle dish served in fish and chickpea soup.
Ingredients include fish floss, egg, chickpea crackers, lime, coriander and chilli flakes.
Having no reference to Burmese food, we absolutely enjoyed this!
Let us explain: the broth has a similar flaky texture to Assam Laksa due to the addition of fish floss but without the tang of tamarind.
However, the broth is akin to the nuttiness of Mee Rebus given the prominence of chickpeas (although the latter sauce is made from potatoes, but you get the idea).
The garnish of coriander and raw long beans added textures to the dish.
Mild, savoury broth with earthy flavours
When mixed with the fish floss, the soup had a lovely thick consistency – not unlike Asam laksa. We loved the addition of two pearl onions (slow-cooked to tenderness in the broth) while the chickpea crackers provided some nice crunch.
Protein came in the form of fish cakes and a whole boiled egg.
The noodles used are thick and similar to the Chinese mi xian.
We enjoyed the mild savoury broth! Traditionally cooked with catfish, Myat and Potatoes opted for barramundi instead as it has a more neutral taste suited for Malaysians’ palate. This was Ming’s favourite dish of the lot.
Lovely dry noodles with pork curry
Originating from Mandalay, Nan Gyi Thoke (RM15.90) is a dry noodle dish served with pork curry, fish cakes, long beans and chickpea crackers.
Other garnishes include fried garlic, chilli flakes, coriander and boiled egg. Loh shi fun is the noodle of choice.
This was Max’s favourite dish from the order. When properly mixed together, the dry curry pork (very savoury and not spicy) just blends so well with the crunch of chickpea crackers and cut raw onions and long beans.
A sprinkle of chilli flakes for some heat and a squeeze of lime juice really rounds up the dish.
The pork curry was also substantial – providing savoury flavours and punch in every spoonful.
Loh shi fun, still so good
If you miss the Claypot Loh Shi Fun (RM13.90) at Oriental Cravings, you can’t go wrong with this one.
The only thing missing from this dish when it arrived was the lack of raw egg on top. This was a sensible choice – raw eggs just don’t travel well during delivery and could end up smelling fishy when it’s cold.
The loh shi fun was lovely. The noodles were well-seasoned with generous pork lard croutons and fried eggy bits. What stood out the most was the texture of the noodles – it retained its “kenyal” (firm in Malay) bite which we enjoyed.
This was exceptional as most noodles we eat at restaurants tend to become overcooked and limp after spending too much time in the claypot. Myat and Potatoes’ noodles remained perfectly al-dente.
Check out the video!
UPDATED: Fried Yam Cake, Tea Salad and Chicken Curry
We’ve been ordering from Myat & Potatoes regularly for months, and thought we’d share about other dishes we tried. Check them out below.
Fried Yam Cake (RM14.90) – Obviously not a Burmese dish – but this is so good! There is enough wok hei and we like that the dish was not too oily.
Myat & Potatoes were really generous with the portion, as the yam cake was stir-fried with eggs, long beans, radish and finally topped with dried shrimps and roasted peanuts.
All the elements really came together well with long beans proving some levity to the umami-rich shrimps and crunchy nuts. The accompanying sweet-spicy sambal was perfect for the extra kick!
Kyer Thar See-Pyan – Burmese Chicken Curry Rice (RM15.90) – The chicken curry is very flavourful. The taste and texture are similar to Indonesian sambal balado, in our view, with the prominent use of shallots and the absence of coconut milk.
Ming did it find spicy but Max (who has a good tolerance of heat) enjoyed it very much. The dish comes with shan tofu (made with chickpeas and our favourite!), omelette and choy sum. The only downside for us was the clumpy rice but everything else was delicious!
Lahpet Thoke – Fermented tea leaves salad (RM17.90) – This Burmese salad is another winner in our books with its mix of veggies and legumes to provide lots of texture and taste.
We absolutely loved the crispy chickpeas (a common denominator in most Burmese dishes), roasted peanuts and extra fragrance from dried shrimps and crispy garlic. They really mixed well with the cabbage and sliced green tomatoes.
The fermented tea leaves are similar to lei cha, in our view – but with a different hint of spices. We also enjoyed the sauce, which tasted like a nice soy sauce-wasabi mix.
Verdict
We really enjoyed the dishes. The two Burmese noodles were a wonderful introduction to Indochinese cuisine – and whetted our appetite for further exploration.
We enjoyed the subtlety of the Mohinga, and the bold medley of ingredients of the Nan Gyi Thoke. We also recommend the Shan Noodles, Fermented Tea Leaf Salad.
For local delicacies, we recommend Clayout Loh Shi Fun and Fried Yam Cake.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Check out our video on Instagram below to see us unpack the dishes from Myat and Potatoes.
How to order from Myat and Potatoes?
To order, simply head on over to their Instagram profile and contact them via the Whatsapp link. You’ll find the menu there.
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