Mandalay

Who knew that a mere two blocks from the perennially overcrowded there is ANOTHER Burmese restaurant? For that matter, who knew there was another Burmese restaurant in San Francisco? Turns out a bunch of people knew both of these things. We headed over to Mandalay (found on Yelp) when the wait at Burma Superstar was almost 2hrs (and yes, we did call ahead to put our name on the list anyway). Mandalay was pretty crowded itself- there was about a 20 minute wait when we got there at 8:30 on a Saturday night- but it's in a bigger space than Superstar so turnover was a little faster.

Menu is comparable to Burma Superstar. We tried to stick to Burmese specialties since we were with out of town guests and how often do you get Burmese food anyway. We started with the Tea Leaf Salad, a favorite of ours from Superstar. It was yummy, with a great combination of flavors and textures. On the menu, the ingredients include "grounded shrimps," which made us wonder what shrimps with their heads in the clouds taste like.

We also shared Burmese Hot and Sour Soup, which was sort of blah- not enough spice for any of our tastes.

For entrees, we shared:

Chin Mong Jaw
Burmese style sour vegetables, sauteed with green chili, prawns, and bamboo shoots. Can be prepared with tofu.

Nan Gyi Dok (Available with Tofu)
Burmese rice noodle with spiced coconut tofu, split yellow pea, powder, and fried onion

Mango Chicken
Pan fry chicken sauteed with fresh mango, onions, and green chili

Burmese Style Curry Chicken
Burmese style yellow curry chicken with potatoes

The burmese style vegetables were really strange. Lots of pickled vegetables combined to make a strange flavor with a pretty bad (IMHO) smell. Yuck.

The chicken dishes were both pretty good, but again both were lacking in heat (spicy heat, not temperature heat). Especially the mango chicken which had a great opportunity to play a little spice of the sweetness of the mango.

The noodles were probably the best dish of the evening. Nice coconut flavor that didn't overpower the dish.

Speaking of coconuts, we got into a discussion about what coconuts look like. At Mandalay, they serve coconut juice from a fresh coconut, which prompted a conversation about whether coconuts have a green skin or a brown, hairy skin. After some extensive internet research (ie I looked at wikipedia), it looks like both are true. The YOUNG coconut, while growing on the tree, is green on the outside. At this immature stage, coconuts contain a liquid called "coconut water" which is often drunk fresh. That's what they serve at Mandalay. As the coconut ages (on the tree), the outside (or mesocarp, for the botanical enthusiasts) turns brown and hardens. Mature, healthy coconuts do not fall from the tree until covered in the brown, hairy husk. However, most culinary uses are from the unripened coconut as the flesh and liquid are generally sweeter. Consider the coconut disambiguated.