Mingalaba: Burmese? Yes Please!

You might remember a couple of months ago I wrote about having gone to to no avail. First, a Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. and a week later a Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. Sure enough, there were people waiting outside both attempts, drooling over the menu and counting the minutes like hours until their names were called. Well, just as I predicted, third time is indeed, a charm. However, that doesn't mean we didn't wait.

Sunday evening at 6 p.m., Burlingame Avenue. The hipper part of town. In my mind, the only people even thinking about dinner at 6 p.m. on any night of the week are children under five and adults over 70. Turns out I am way out of touch with the regulars at Mingalaba.

In an effort to weigh how hungry we were against the growing list of names waiting for a table, we asked a server for a predicted wait time. Thirty minutes. A thirty minute wait on a Sunday at 6 p.m. (Sorry, I still can't believe it.) However, I also don't think 30 minutes is so bad, and frankly, I was glad to wait a bit later. So, we left our phone number and strolled the Ave.

We looked at greeting cards and off the wall gifts at  and perused the best sellers at . until we got "the call." Before I even hung up, we took off running. I realize it sounds pathetic, but you should have seen us; the sight was way more pathetic than I can ever describe. Flip flops loudly slapping the pavement, tennis shoes navigating through the maze of pedestrians and an enthusiastic "go go go!" from the back.

Naturally, we stopped running a few stores away in an effort to disguise our over-eagerness to be there as quickly as possible for fear of our table being given away. A little windblown, we entered the restaurant and took our seat at one of the few four-tops in the slightly cramped and narrow space.

Almost immediately, we were greeted by a warm smiling face, the man responsible for putting together what he refers to as - and rightfully so - "the best wine list on the Avenue." A small but perfectly balanced selection of small production California wines, most of which the Sommelier has sought out and visited himself, were carefully selected with equal parts intrigue and practicality. After grilling the poor guy about the menu, I ordered a glass of the Pinot Noir at his recommendation of how well it pairs with a majority of the food. (Wise man--it was both new to me and completely delicious.)

And grill him I did. Two questions I always ask at an Asian style restaurant: “What's your spiciest dish?” and “What's your house favorite?” I ask for spiciest because I come from the school of thought of the spicier the better (I reiterate, when your forehead beads and your nose runs, that's when you know it's good), and house favorite because it's usually something I would not normally order on my own. After all, that's half the fun of dining out, right?

We started with the Burmese Vegetable Samusas, which were familiar to , but just different enough to keep me interested. Per usual we over-ordered, but when a bright and bubbly woman came to our table to suggest the evening special, I couldn't resist her addictive charm.

Either she saw me coming, or she is just that passionate about the food. The evening special included hand picked young pea shoots - picked that day - sauteed with garlic. Only enough were picked for roughly five orders, and I was pleased to be one of them. Heartier than spinach but similar in texture, they had just the right amount of crunch to compliment the wilted leaves. The dish was incredibly fresh, the tiniest bit sweet, and was hit with a lot of raw garlic, in a good way.

Also on the table appeared the Burmese Style Curry Lamb, Cashew Chicken (because who doesn't love a tried and true classic?), steamed white rice and the Nan Gyi Dok, which is a Burmese rice noodle with spicy coconut chicken, cilantro, lime, raw onions, fried onions and a light but flavorful peanut sauce. The noodle "salad" comes to the table deconstructed, and our server explained each ingredient to us - what it was, what it should taste like and what it does to the dish - and mixed it for us right at the table. The aroma was overwhelming, leaving us salivating a la Pavlov. The curry lamb was both sinfully rich and angelically tender, the Cashew Chicken both familiar and enticing.

A delightfully surprising finish to the gluttony that had just occurred was a small leaf shaped dish of homemade mango coconut pudding. A house specialty and traditional dessert was followed by the more Americanized treat, a fortune cookie.

All the servers had a smile on their faces, and every one of them was more than happy to answer any and all questions, almost as if they had been waiting all day to gush about the menu. As I mentioned, we were greeted first by the Sommelier, but placed our order with a different server. When the somm came back to see if we had made any decisions on the menu, I apologized for having placed my order with someone else (so embarrassing, I know better than that! But she was so convincing!), he responded happily and said, "Oh no worries! We're a team here. Let me know if I can get you anything else," and walked away with a smile.

And so did we.