Hnin “Snow” Wai

DE’ RANGOON

33

MYANMAR (BURMA)

As a child, Snow (hnin literally means “snow” in Burmese) lived in Dawei, in the southern part of Burma close to Thailand, where her grandparents ran a traditional Burmese tea shop still in operation today. Her grandfather was Chinese and had run across the border in World War II. He’d set up the tea shop in Dawei as a way to make a living without any Burmese language skills. He eventually found a Burmese-speaking friend to help him, and met Snow’s grandmother, a Burmese woman who had learned Hokkien in an afterschool program before the government closed down all the Chinese schools. She and eventually her daughter—Snow’s mother—made Chinese, Burmese, and Indian food for the tea shop. Snow grew up eating their delicious food, three meals a day.

But the family business was struggling, so her father left to try to make money in Tokyo, and Snow went with her mother to Rangoon. She studied Chinese after school, with the hopes of someday getting a student visa and moving to China, but by the end of high school, a Chinese student visa seemed unlikely, even though her Chinese was good. She tried to find a way to join her father in Japan, but immigrating there was difficult.

Her uncle in the US suggested she try the green card lottery. She won and moved to New York at the age of twenty-one, tagging along with a friend and her family who were moving at the same time. Until that moment, she’d never traveled without her family.

Since Snow hadn’t anticipated moving to the US, and had focused on Chinese instead of English, she had a hard time getting around the first year. She also had never worked before, or cooked, or done laundry—so the learning curve was steep on all fronts. A cousin she’d just met arranged for her to work at a Dunkin’ Donuts, but she couldn’t understand the customers and got yelled at a lot. She was miserable and called her mom to tell her she was coming home.

Back in Rangoon, Snow decided she wanted to learn to cook and became her mother’s apprentice, watching and copying her every move for six months, until she felt strong enough to give New York another go. This time, she enrolled in ESL classes and got a job at a Subway in midtown Manhattan. The manager was Chinese and didn’t seem to mind her lack of English so long as he could direct her in Chinese. The customers, however, did mind.

“The first time a customer asked me something, and I didn’t understand, he was so pissed off. He told me, Can you put mayonnaise, but I don’t know what’s mayonnaise; I don’t know anything about any mustard, you know—I had a very hard time! I could not catch their pronunciation. Every night I came home and cried about the customers scolding me, and the boss scolding me in Chinese. That’s why I went to ESL classes at LaGuardia. I worked till 4:00, so ESL classes 5:00 to 9:00, three or four days a week. I’d just eat Subway sandwiches on the way because they were free, but I did not like them.”

Eventually, she got a better job as a waitress in a Japanese restaurant and connected with New York’s Chinese-Burmese community. She made friends and started attending community events like the Water Festival, or the Chinese New Year party where she met her husband in 2013. From a family of restaurateurs himself, Snow’s husband took her seriously when she shared her dream of opening a tea shop in New York like her grandparents’ and encouraged her to start small, with a pop-up shop or small-scale catering.

As Snow developed her menu for her debut at the Queens Night Market in 2017, she and her husband invited all their friends, Burmese and non-Burmese alike, to regular tasting parties at their home in Elmhurst. The tea leaf salad and Shan noodles always got the top scores and made their Burmese friends nostalgic, especially because there were no Burmese restaurants in New York since Mingala, the one run by Snow’s husband’s family, had shut down in 2016

Snow’s husband, Win Htwe

De’ Rangoon may yet revive it. . . .

LAPHET THOKE
Tea Leaf Salad

In Myanmar, tea leaf salad is available at almost every street stall and tea shop, and it’s often offered as a complimentary dessert in restaurants. Fermenting leaves isn’t something usually done at home, because ready-made fermented tea leaves can be store-bought. But here in the US, Snow had to teach herself to ferment dry tea leaves. We’re glad she did, because the resulting salad is a great balance of salty, sour, spicy, bitter, and crunchy from the mixed beans and seeds.

Makes 2 servings

FERMENTED TEA LEAVES

10 cups (2.4 L) boiling water

2 tablespoons loose dry green tea leaves*

½ cup (120 ml) canola oil

3 Indian green chiles (or similar), seeded

Juice of ½ lime

½ garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon salt

TOASTED BEANS AND SEEDS

1 teaspoon canola oil

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

¼ cup (16 g) boondi (fried chickpea flour puffs)**

¼ cup (40 g) salted, roasted peanuts

¼ cup (35 g) salted, roasted soybeans

¼ cup (30 g) roasted sunflower seeds

2½ tablespoons fried garlic chips (such as Maesri brand)

2 tablespoons roasted pumpkin seeds

1 teaspoon salt

SALAD

1 head romaine lettuce or Taiwanese flat cabbage, shredded

6 cherry tomatoes

14 small dried shrimp

½ jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped

2 lime wedges

2 teaspoons fish sauce, or 2 pinches of salt

1. To make the fermented tea leaves, place the tea leaves in a pot and pour in 5 cups (1.2 L) boiling water. Let steep for 20 minutes. Drain through a fine-mesh strainer; pick out and discard any tough bits like little stems. Place the tea leaves in cheesecloth and squeeze out the water. Repeat and then soak in cold water overnight.

2. Drain the leaves, squeeze out excess water, and place in a food processor with the oil, chiles, lime juice, garlic, and salt. Blend into a slightly textured paste, just nearly smooth. Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 days to develop the fermented taste.

3. To make the toasted beans and seeds, heat the oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and toast until light brown, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and toast, mixing or tossing regularly, until shiny with a coat of oil, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, let cool to room temperature, and store in an airtight container.

4. To make the salad, divide the lettuce among two bowls. Around the edges of each bowl, arrange half of the cherry tomatoes, dried shrimp, and jalapeño, along with one lime wedge. Top each bowl with half of the toasted beans and seeds, then add 1 tablespoon of the fermented tea leaves, and 1 teaspoon of the fish sauce or a pinch of salt on top.

5. Serve, squeezing over the lime wedge and mixing well to eat. Leftover fermented tea leaves can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

* The best and traditional way of fermenting tea leaves is using fresh tea leaves, but since fresh tea leaves are hard to find in the US, use loose dried green tea leaves, available in Chinese grocery stores.

** Boondi can be purchased in Indian/South Asian grocery stores.

SHAN KHAO SWE
Shan Noodles

Shan noodles originate from the eastern state of Shan in Myanmar and are typically eaten for lunch or dinner. When Snow was growing up, there weren’t many Shan noodle shops around, so her family would take long morning drives to enjoy them as a breakfast treat. This recipe is passed down from her aunt and is an umami marriage of soy sauce, tomato sauce, and chicken curry.

Makes 4 servings

CHICKEN CURRY

1 pound (455 g) boneless chicken thighs

Two ¼-inch (6.5 mm) slices peeled fresh ginger

2 whole garlic cloves

2 tablespoons salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon Indian red chile powder (lal mirch)

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon fish sauce

½ teaspoon chicken bouillon powder

TOMATO SAUCE

1½ tablespoons canola oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ teaspoon ground star anise

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 medium tomatoes, smoothly blended

1 tablespoon plus 4 teaspoons light soy sauce

1 teaspoon dashi

4 teaspoons dark black soy sauce (such as Dragonfly brand)*

16 ounces (450 g) rice noodles

Chopped cilantro leaves

Fried garlic

Crushed peanuts

Pickled mustard leaves**

Mung bean sprouts

1. To make the chicken curry, bring 3½ cups (840 ml) water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the chicken, ginger, garlic cloves, 1½ tablespoons of the salt, and the pepper. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken and let rest, until cool enough to handle. Shred with a fork.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until it begins to brown, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat to low, add the paprika, chile powder, and turmeric, and stir until well incorporated. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the shredded chicken, fish sauce, the remaining 1½ teaspoons salt, and the bouillon powder. Stir and cook until the chicken is hot and well coated with the rest of the ingredients, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

3. To make the tomato sauce, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat to low, add the star anise and paprika, and stir until well incorporated. Turn the heat to medium, add the tomato paste, blended tomatoes, 3 teaspoons of the light soy sauce, and the dashi, and cook until the liquid has reduced and thickened to a pasta-sauce consistency, about 12 minutes.

4. To make the noodles, soak the noodles in a bowl of warm water for 20 minutes. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the noodles. Stir with chopsticks to prevent sticking and cook until tender, about 3 minutes, depending on thickness of the noodles. Drain and rinse with cool water.

5. Divide the noodles among four bowls. Top each with 1 teaspoon of the light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of the black soy sauce, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon of the tomato sauce, and 2 or 3 tablespoons of the chicken curry. Garnish with the cilantro, fried garlic, peanuts, mustard leaves, and bean sprouts.

* Available at Asian grocery stores, black soy sauce is sweeter and less salty than regular, light soy sauce.

** Pickled mustard leaves are available jarred in Asian grocery stores.