- Mike Sula
- The Burmese situation
I’ve whinged aplenty in my day about the lack of Burmese food in Chicago, a deficit much smaller nearby cities like Fort Wayne and Indianapolis don’t suffer due to their relatively large and fairly established immigrant populations. There are only about 2,000 Burmese in Chicago, most of them recent arrivals, so it’s difficult if not impossible to satisfy one’s craving for sour mustard tofu or pickled tea leaf salad (unless you want the packaged kind).
But it’s become a lot easier to make your own since the publication of Naomi Duguid’s excellent, James Beard Award-nominated Burma: Rivers of Flavor last September. This weekend that’s exactly what Friend of the Food Chain Kristina Meyer did, throwing down a massive 11-dish, 12-condiment Burmese feast at the lakefront. You can do it too: all but one of the ingredients required were sourced in Chicago Asian markets. A few of the highlights follow.