SALT, sweet, sour, spice, umami and crunch – Burmese food has it all, and yet it’s still relatively unknown in the West.
However, it’s hardly going to stay this way for long, particularly with the help of Emily and Amy Chung and their new cookbook, The Rangoon Sisters. The Chungs have Burmese parents and their nickname comes from the largest city in Myanmar – Yangon – which is also known as Rangoon.
Most people still aren’t really familiar with Burmese cuisine, which Amy drily describes as “absolutely delicious, obviously”. So, what sums it up?
“It does have influences from neighbouring countries, like Thailand, China and India, so there might be some familiar flavours and spices – and there’s lots of onion, garlic and ginger,” explains Amy. “But Burmese cuisine has a lot to offer as an individual cuisine as well; it has curries which tend to be more mildly spiced and aromatic after slow cooking, and you also have lots of vibrant fresh salads, which are more substantial than your average salad. It’s full of textures and different condiments.”
Emily says her favourite thing about Burmese food is “the extra bits you can add on to your plate, to make each mouthful a different flavour”. She associates an “intensity and saltiness” with it because of the prevalence of “shrimpy, fishy flavours”. This, coupled with all the dips and sauces that tend to feature, means “you can make your plate your own”, she adds. “So if you’d like lots of chilli flavour, you can have that, and you can alter the sourness as well – there’s something for everybody.”
The sisters were born and bred in London and say their Anglo-Burmese-Chinese heritage inspires their cooking. Their food careers started at a grassroots level, when they started showcasing Burmese food through supper clubs.
Looking back at their first one in 2013, the sisters can’t help but laugh. “We hadn’t really thought too much about what we were undertaking,” says Emily with a groan. Instead of starting small and building their way up, their first event was for 60 people, which Emily says was “quite frantic when we were in the kitchen”. However, by the end of the night, they had a room full of happy guests and the sisters had well and truly caught the supper club bug.
All of the recipes they served for that first ever event are now in their cookbook – starting with chickpea fritters (which Emily calls “a deep-fried crunchy fritter, which has chilli, turmeric, paprika and a bit of coriander, served with a tamarind sour-spicy dip”), followed by ohn no khauk swe – a classic Burmese dish of coconut chicken noodles, often served at birthdays – and ending with mango cheesecake.
Talking to them both, it’s clear Emily and Amy have a unique rapport as sisters – and this is often felt in the kitchen too, they agree. “With any siblings, things can vary and be a bit up and down,” Amy admits. “But obviously we’ve been able to work together and things have been successful – but there are times when things get more heated, particularly running up to a supper club.”
So is there much bickering? In typical sibling style, Emily says it wasn’t uncommon in the stressful build-up to an event for them to raise their voices at each other – but being so close helped. “That’s how we were effectively communicating in that situation, and then we’re fine with each other, you just forget about it,” she says.
Their quest to champion Burmese food might be going from strength to strength, but the Chungs haven’t given up their day jobs. Both sisters are also doctors – and they say this complements their culinary side hustle perfectly.
“It helps in the sense that as a medic, to get your day done, you have to be organised, you have to be able to manage your time, and you have to be able to prioritise and communicate with your team,” says Emily – and the same applies to cooking.
They both find food the perfect outlet for their high pressure jobs. “I think it’s really nice to be able to do something quite different, and put your energy and focus into something else that you can get pleasure out of – even though it is quite hard and tiring sometimes,” Emily adds. Amy agrees, saying their food passion helps give them a “work/life balance, in a way”.
It might be an escape from the intense world of medicine, but writing a cookbook came with its own set of difficulties. “One of the challenges we both found is when you’re doing recipes from your mum or grandma or dad, they don’t have fixed instructions or quantities,” says Emily. “So you have to watch what they’re doing and you can’t take your eyes off them, because they’ll be adding this and that without thinking about how much.
“So I think that was the challenge, because you pick up those behaviours, where you’re just tasting and adding and not really thinking about it… But now at least it’s all documented.”
The Rangoon Sisters: Recipes From Our Burmese Family Kitchen by Emily and Amy Chung, recipe photography by Martin Poole, is published by Penguin, priced £20. Below are two recipes from the book for you to try.
COCONUT CHICKEN NOODLES
(Serves 6)
5tbsp oil (vegetable, sunflower or peanut), plus extra for browning the chicken
5 medium onions, chopped
10 garlic cloves, peeled
2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled
8 skinless and boneless chicken thighs, chopped into 3cm pieces
2tbsp paprika
1tsp turmeric powder
2tsp chilli powder
100g creamed coconut (the solid block type), or 200ml coconut milk would work
2tbsp gram flour, sifted and evenly toasted in a dry frying pan
600ml chicken stock
2–3tbsp fish sauce
400ml cold water
To serve:
6 nests (450–500g) dried chow mein or egg noodles, cooked
3 limes, cut into wedges
6 hard-boiled eggs, cut in half
Coriander leaves
4 shallots, thinly sliced
200g crispy fried rice noodles
Chilli flakes or chilli oil
Fish sauce
Method:
Heat the oil in a large casserole dish set over a medium heat. Add the chopped onions and cook slowly, turning the heat to low-medium and stirring every four to five minutes until softened and starting to lightly brown and become oily but not crispy – about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, crush the garlic cloves and ginger to a paste using a pestle and mortar or food processor.
Once the onions are ready, add the garlic and ginger paste and fry for two minutes. Add a splash more oil, then brown the chicken pieces with the onion/garlic/ginger mix. Add the spices and creamed coconut, breaking it up into smaller pieces as you stir – it should melt. Stir in the toasted gram flour, followed by the chicken stock, fish sauce and the cold water. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer, uncovered, over a low, gentle heat for about 30 minutes. If the broth is too thick, add some water.
For the crispy fried rice noodles, pour vegetable, sunflower or peanut oil into a wok or deep saucepan to a depth of 5cm and set over a medium-high heat. Line a large bowl with kitchen paper and have a heatproof strainer or sieve ready for fishing out the noodles. Test the readiness of the oil by popping a piece of dried noodle into it – it should instantly sizzle (rice noodles will curl up and turn opaque and bubbly). Separate the nest of noodles and add a handful to the oil, frying for a minute, then scoop up with your chosen implement and drain on the kitchen paper. Fry the remaining noodles in batches.
Serve the broth hot on a bed of cooked egg noodles. Add a squeeze of lime juice and top with boiled eggs and the remaining garnishes in little bowls for everyone to help themselves to.
TOMATO AND CRUNCHY PEANUT SALAD
(Serves 4 as a side)
50g unsalted roasted peanuts
300g tomatoes, at room temperature, quartered
1/2 green finger chilli, deseeded (optional) and finely sliced
1tbsp dried shrimps (optional)
1–2 raw shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
3–5tbsp garlic oil (see instructions below)
Juice of 1/2 lime
2tsp fish sauce (omit to make vegetarian, then season with salt)
Small handful of coriander leaves
1tsp gram flour, sifted and evenly toasted in a dry frying pan
Crispy fried shallots, to garnish
For the garlic oil:
3 bulbs of garlic, peeled
400ml oil (vegetable, sunflower or peanut)
1tsp turmeric powder
Method:
For the garlic oil, separate the garlic cloves and slice them as thinly and evenly as you can. Line a plate with a few sheets of kitchen paper. Heat the oil in a deep, medium saucepan or wok set over a medium-high heat. Test the readiness of the oil by placing a piece of garlic in it; if it sizzles and comes to the surface within a few seconds, the oil is ready and you can add all the garlic at once, turning the heat down to low.
Keep a close eye on the garlic, turning the pieces regularly. Turn the heat down if the garlic is colouring quickly – or remove the pan from the heat completely for a minute or so. Once the garlic pieces are golden brown and crisp, take the pan off the heat. Scoop out the pieces using a heatproof strainer and transfer them to the plate with the kitchen paper. Stir the turmeric into the oil and leave to cool. Once cool, pour the garlic oil into a clean, sealable bottle.
Crush the peanuts using a pestle and mortar or pulse a few times in a food processor. Place the tomatoes, chilli, peanuts and remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix.
Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more fish sauce or chilli if necessary. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the crispy shallots.
