Rangoon

We love Burmese food, but it's really difficult to get in NYC. There's only a handful of places and the few summer food fairs/fundraisers, which are definitely not enough for a regular fix of our favorite yellow tofu salad. So when we saw that Philadelphia had a Burmese restaurant with great reviews located in Chinatown, not far from where we were going to be all weekend, we knew we had to try it.

After we finally arrived in Philadelphia and checked in to our hotel, we went all the way over to the ballpark for the baseball game, only to find out a short time later that it had been rained out and rescheduled for the following day, so we had to find other plans for the night. It was a pretty simple decision. We were off to Rangoon for dinner.

One of the hardest things to do at Rangoon was narrow down the menu to a manageable number of dishes since we couldn't have leftovers and didn't want to roll ourselves in the rain back to our hotel room. We ended up deciding on 5 dishes, which may sound like a lot for 2 people, but when it comes to stuff we like that we can't easily get at home, I guess our stomachs expand.

We got:

Burmese tofu salad ($7, all prices from 2013, not sure what they are now): homemade tofu with garlic, sesame, coriander, fried onion, lime leaf in a tamarind sauce.

This salad was a slightly different variation from what we usually get at the food fairs. The slices of yellow tofu were soft and smooth like always. The toppings and sauces were a little different from the versions we've had before, but they were good. It wasn't our favorite dish of the night, but we were so happy to eat this again. Since we can never guarantee that we can make it to the food fairs and the only other restaurant where we've ever eaten this is in Los Angeles (recap to come eventually), we were happy to find somewhere closer than the West Coast where this dish is affordable. (The only place in NYC that we know has it all the time is really pricey.)

String bean and peanut salad ($7): string beans, peanuts, onions, sesame, tomatoes, dried shrimp, lime juice, seasonings.

We saw this dish advertised in the window as winning an award, so we knew we had to try it. Although it was tasty (everything at dinner was), it was probably our least favorite of the appetizer selections. It reminded me a little bit of a salad version of string bean belacan. It was light and fresh.

Firecracker lentil fritters (3 for $6): ground lentils with blend of onions, mint and chili spices.

These balls of lentils and spices were deep fried deliciousness. The lentils and spices together were so tasty, and very complementary with the sour pungent garlic sauce on the side. Although it wasn't listed in the menu description, we tasted lots of cumin, and we really love cumin. The fritters were crispy on the outside and the mashed up interior was so spiced and flavorful. These fritters were so, so good. This made A's favorites list last year.

Rangoon house noodle ($9.50): flat rice noodles served with diced chicken, onions, tomatoes and red bean sauce.

The chicken seemed a little more like minced or ground chicken than diced chicken, but it was great that way because it soaked up all the flavors. The dish was like a wet version of stir-fried noodles with thick rice noodles. The sauce and toppings were great. It reminded us of something that we couldn't quite place in our memories, but overall, we really enjoyed it.

Burmese vatana bean fried rice ($8): fried rice with vatana beans and fried onions.

This fried rice was the biggest surprise of the night. We had no idea what vatana beans were but they showed up a few times on the menu, so we thought we'd try them here. Google said they were something like white or yellow peas, and they tasted a bit like baby chickpeas. They came in the fried rice with fried onions on top. It was incredibly delicious and there was this smokiness pervading the rice that was so appealing. This was on my favorites list from last year, as there were plenty of days at home when I just wanted to eat this again.

We had a Burmese feast that night and we left incredibly happy, despite the fact that the temperature had dropped and the wind was whipping the rain around outside, rendering our umbrellas completely useless. It was so cold walking through Chinatown that my teeth started chattering. In mid-July! Probably better that we spent the night indulging in Burmese comfort food instead of at a baseball game...

Rangoon is located at 112 North 9th Street, Philadelphia.