Driving to Daw Yee

Nov14

Location: 2837 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026. (213) 413-0568

Date: September 26, 2018

Cuisine: Myanmar Cuisine

Rating: a touch bland and hence disappointing

I braved the deadly rush hour traffic to the ass’s end of LA (from a Westsider’s perspective) — Silverlake!

Mostly because I wasn’t sure if I’d ever had genuine Myanmar food before. This is a relatively new branch of an SGV place. It’s located right next to Silverlake Ramen, Pho Cafe, and down the street from Ma’am Sir.

The interior is small and cute.

The menu.

Fish curry. Rakhine style tilapia fish fillet, tomatoes, lemongrass, shallots, cayenne pepper, and paprika. Served with coconut rice. Odd way to start off!

Laphet Thoke (Tea Leaf Salad). Myanmar imported fermented tea leaves, tomatoes, roasted peanuts, fried yellow lentils, fried garlic, toasted sesame, diced tomatoes, shredded cabbage, dried shrimps, and fish sauce.

All mixed up. Interesting.

Gin Thoke. Pickled ginger, roasted butter beans, roasted lentils, toasted sesame, peanut butter, and shredded cabbage. Nice crunch to it.

Samosas. Fried pastry filled with poatoes and onions seasoned with masala curry. Can’t go to wrong with fried.

Kima Platha. Platha sutffed with masala seasoned chicken, beef, or lamb. A bit like a Beijing meat pie.

Potato pancakes. Pan fried mashed potatoes stuffed with ground lamb, mint, and Thai chili.

Kachin Style Salmon Belly. With cilantro, lemongrass, and spicy chili steamed in banana leaves.

Inside view. Not sure they had Salmon in Myanmar back in the day.

Mohinga. Myanmar’s national dish. Round rice noodles and hard-boiled egg in catfish chowder.

Shan noodles. Rich stick noodles served with coconut chicken, roasted peanuts, toasted sesame, chili oil, and Shan pickles. This was tasty.

Vegan bowl. Curried potatoes, seasonal vegetables, Myanmar tofu, several kinds of noodles, and coconut rice. Not bad at all for vegan.

Garlic noodles. Wheat flour flat noodles tossed in garlic oil, soy sauce, and shredded duck. Chinese in style, but good.

Goat Curry. Naah! Pretty mild though.

Platha. Daw Yee special homemade platha served with mashed garbanzo beans. Dips well in curry, otherwise greasy.

Beef Curry. Beef shank in onion, lemongrass masala curry, served with coconut rice. On of the stronger (and therefore better) curries.

Lamb Curry. Lamb with potato in onion and garam masala. Served with coconut rice.

Steak Bowl. Tri tip steak, shallots in spiced rum, seasonal vegetables, brown rice, and topped with a fried egg. Interesting mix.

Pumpkin curry. Pumpkin, potatoes, mustard seeds, and curry leaves. Served with coconut rice.

Lemongrass chicken. Ground chicken wrapped in lemongrass stick, seasonal vegetables, and brown rice.

Spicy Prawns. Prawns, seasonal vegetables, and coconut rice.

Tapioca Cake. Tapioca, coconut milk, and white rice flour. I loved these actually. Gummy with a mild coconut flavor.

Shew Kyi Cake. Semolina wheat cake with poppy seeds. Hmmm. Dry.

Cassava flour and egg. A bit like a dry custard/flan cake.

Overall, Daw Yew was good, and interesting, but the flavors were kind of muted. The dishes visually look like they would be strong in flavor, but the intensity, fish sauce, spice, etc were all toned down. The owner told us that he “did it because of the neighborhood.” I like strong flavors though so I was a bit disappointed. Fun evening though. And they treated us really well.