Burma Burma, a restaurant that gives you the taste of Myanmar flavours has been grabbing a lot of eyeballs since it’s inception. With Burma sharing borders with India and China there’s huge influence that’s seen in Burmese cuisine. In a Slurrp Exclusive Chef Ansab Khan who heads the culinary operations for Burma Burma, has been a part of the founding team shares his thoughts. .
Chef Ansab’s passion to continuously learn & explore his craft have won him the Top Chef awards for Best Asian Restaurant Delhi NCR 2017 & also The Chef of the Year at DLF food awards 2018 amongst others. He has extensively travelled in Burma on more than 7 occasions to learn the nuances of Burmese Cuisine.
Chef’s recent travels to Australia have led him to discover the best of Native Australian ingredients while cooking with some of the best chefs in the country at the most reputed kitchens. He is one of the pioneers of Burmese cuisine in the words so to speak.
Raw Mango salad
In a city that is highly recommended floor its non veg food culture, how difficult was it to establish a vegetarian Burmese brand.
It wasn’t really difficult coz we already had covered five cities prior to Kolkata so we had a fair idea of how to take it forward. Also we promote ourselves as a restaurant serving Burmese food & invite guest with an open mind to try our food rather than defining it as vegetarian only dining place. Our guest mix has been diverse demographically. People of Kolkata as we all know are great foodies have appreciated & supported us.
Had you worked with an exclusive all veg restaurant earlier?
No, I haven’t worked with an exclusive veg place earlier
Did you have any experience with Burmese food prior to joining the brand?
My only exposure to Burmese food was eating a few dishes like Kho suey & tea leaf salad at Ankit’s house made by his mom. But then I visited Burma for the first time in 2012 to explore & learn more about the food & culture the tool is a good two years of research & trials to finally start with Burma Burma in 2014
Brown Onion & Roasted chilly Paukse
How much do you see Burmese and Indian food influence each other?
There’s massive influence specially in the food of Yangon & other bigger cities there’s been historical & trading relationship during the British days Samosa, paratha & naan are widely eaten. Then there’s influence from South India with crepes similar to dosa and steamed rice dishes. Then there are communities from Bihar who were settled there as farm labour’s & big Marwari community in trading all of them have influenced the Burmese food. Also Kolkata & Yangon (Rangoon) shared a special bond & connect during British Raj period
You go to comfort Burmese dish
A warm bowl of Samosa soup & raw mango salad
