Thursday, May 26, 2005

One from the past

Back in late April, when I was drowning in busyness and malaise, I cooked a dish that I totally forgot to blog. I decided to post a quick note about it since I've been catching up lately.

I tried "Burmese-Style Red Lentil Soup" from From Bangkok to Bali in Thirty Minutes. Ever since I ate at Rangoon with friends a couple of winters ago, I've been impelled to find out more about Burmese food. The night market noodles at Rangoon were particularly excellent, but everything was tasty. Unfortunately, life has not been conducive to my goal of tossing everything else aside to concentrate on Burmese food. The best I can say is some of my pan-Asian cookbooks have scattered Burmese recipes included in them.

The soup is very simple, essentially a mix of red lentils (masoor dal in Indian food terms) with garlic, ginger and turmeric simmered in water. The end result was fine, but a little bland. On the other hand, Burmese cooking stresses garnishes, and I didn't garnish the soup with anything (the recipe recommends sesame salt and crisp-fried shallots). If I found the soup bland, it was my own fault for not garnishing it as I should have done. Maybe next time.

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