A Tribute to Burma and Beyond

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011300759_pf.html

By Tom Sietsema
Wednesday, January 14, 2009; F03



Tired of screaming at your dining companions and bumping against the people sitting next to you at restaurants?

Oceans of space encircle the tables at Burma Road (617 S. Frederick Ave., Gaithersburg; 301-963-1429), where mint-green walls and tinkling music also put diners at ease. "I feel good in here," says the 80-year-old in my party, echoing the sentiments of all of us on a recent visit to this young restaurant. No sooner is everyone seated than a pot of tea appears.

Behind the tranquillity is Win Myint, who introduces himself to customers as simply "Charlie." Burma Road is a tribute to the place of his birth and the path by which his mother and grandmother fled the invading Japanese in World War II. Of the trio of friends who helped open the 110-seat restaurant in October, Myint, 54, is the only one with experience in the field, having run Hunan Cafe in King George, Va., for a decade.



The menu weaves Burmese with Chinese dishes. Thus pickled tea leaf salad and pork with pickled mango share space with General Tso's chicken and kung pao shrimp. Given the relative scarcity of the former cuisine around here, friends and I fill up on that salad, crunchy with peanuts and fueled with garlic, and that spicy meat and fruit combination, which is a tad oily but also hearty. Not to be missed: roti, the flaky Indian pancake, served with a "dip" of chicken curry.

Executing the long menu are four cooks, two Burmese and two Chinese, whose work can be delivered free to anyone ordering within a three-mile radius of Burma Road.

Something tells us Myint makes a mean cup of coffee. Before Burma Road, he worked as an assistant manager at a Starbucks in Washington.

Entrees, $6.50-$14.95.

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