Myanmar Restaurant is located in Falls Church, Virginia, and tucked into a strip mall set back from Lee Highway. It has a cozy interior and when we arrived the two dining rooms were pretty full. They also have leather-backed chairs, which are pretty comfortable. The service there is low-key, and looks like a family run business. About half of the diners seemed to be Burmese (speaking in an unidentifiable language to the waiters). We’d read as far as the first line of the Wikipedia entry, which stated that Burmese cuisine is a combination of Indian, Thai, and Chinese cuisines. However, after trying the cuisine, we’d have to say that it doesn’t really taste like any of those three, and tasted to us like its own unique species.

Our waiter was more than enthusiastic to help us decide what to order (he did not want us to order spare ribs and a pork dish – in fact, he didn’t want us to order the spare ribs at all!). We ended up ordering as appetizers two types of salad: Pickled Tea Leaf Salad (which our waiter kindly combined with the Pickled Ginger Salad so we could try both) and a Curried Tofu Salad. Burmese salads, rather than being insipid and light appetizers, are very flavorful, highly spiced, and filling. The Pickled Tea Leaf Salad had great textures and flavors, including whole peanuts and raw cabbage. The Curried Tofu Salad was like no salad we had ever tried, with slices of cooked tofu in it. Both dishes were quite spicy and very unique.

Wikipedia informs us that pickled tea leaves, or Lahpet, is unique to Burma and is considered a national delicacy and plays a significant role in Burmese culture. In fact, Burma is one of only a few countries where tea leaves are used in drinks and eaten, as well. They’re served in special dishes and are every day staples. The pickled tea leaf salad is common all over Burma.

We also learned that the tofu is different, and that Burmese tofu is not made from soy, but from chickpea flour. It’s texture and flavor is different than soy-based tofu. Also, it is prepared in Burma in many different ways. The tofu salad we had is another extremely common dish in Burma, and is eaten as a snack and as a meal.

We also ordered a vegetable tofu dish, which was bland and tasted like one of those “healthy options” dishes on Chinese carry-out menus. Our other entree was Nan gyi, recommended by our waiter. It was a spicy dish with spaghetti-like noodles with a curry-like flavor. We’ve since learned that this has been called Burmese  spaghetti. One of the common garnishes on all the food were white crispy wonton-like strips.

Our spare ribs, although we were advised not to order them, were delicious and came with a molasses-tasting sauce.

The menu here is quite extensive, but the salads were what we found most delicious.

The Washington Post  has recently done some critics of the popular restaurant, X.O. Taste. As a result, I checked it out for myself. On a Saturday night, it was full with both Asian and American diners, with people waiting outside the restaurant for a seat. The restaurant is bright and open with large round wooden tables and modern/unusual lighting and bright wall colors, giving it an urban vibe. There seemed to be one waiter working the whole restaurant, which was pretty amazing considering the number of people eating. Inside, many large families and groups of people were eating. The round tables have a clear glass lazy Susan on them, making them ideal for family style dining. The restaurant itself was noisy and informal.

The menu was large and diverse. This place bears no resemblance to the normal Chinese restaurants here. There was no Orange Chicken and the only item that came close was Hot and Sour Soup (apparently part of Beijing cuisine). We had to ask the waiter about virtually all the dishes we considered ordering to get a clearer idea about what they were – even something like Sizzling Beef with Black Pepper seemed mysterious. The menu is enormous and overwhelming, serving congee (a type of savory rice porridge), noodle dishes, casseroles, soups, etc. and all varieties and makes of meat, everything from pork, chicken, sea cucumber, the infamous Dungeness crab, tofu, frog, duck tongue, etc. It is safe to say that all meats and parts are fair game. There was also a large range of sea food, which seems to be due to the influence of Chiu Chow cuisine that favors duck, goose, and seafood. Luckily, the waiter was friendly and patient with us. Hong Kong cuisine is strongly Cantonese influenced. They use chopsticks primarily, but at X.O. we were also given a small fork. The type of cooking seemed to be less focused on breading and frying and more on pan frying and steaming.

While drinking tea and deliberating over the menu, we ultimately became overwhelmed with all the dishes and instead tried to order a variety of meats. At X.O. Taste, they serve each dish as they come out (at record speed!) rather than all at once, ensuring that everything is hot and fresh.

Two dishes we ordered were Siu Mei (a style of Chinese rotisserie consisting only of meat). The first that came out was Baby Roast Pig, listed under Hong Kong Style Marinated and BBQ. This dish is served only in the evenings (banquet/dinner style) and only on weekends. We wanted to try the duck and pork because these are Hong Kong specialties, and because they display them on hooks at the front of the restaurant. The pork was surprisingly served cold with a crispy exterior, a layer of fat, and then the meat below it. The pork was marinated and very rich, probably due to the large amount of fat (even though the waiter said that the Baby Pig is less fatty than the adult Pig). The meat was tender and the marinade had a good flavor.

Next came Roast Duck on Rice, which was very tender and delicious. They served the meat in a layer of skin, meat, and bone, which through me off at first because I’m used to the bone being removed. The marinade had a slightly sweet taste and the dish was served warm.

Next they served Sizzling Steak in Black Pepper, which was indeed served sizzling. The meat had a good flavor but was a little tough for our vision of steak and very soft (not sizzled to crispiness).

The final dish that came was Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp Paste and Black Bean Sauce. I love tofu so this one was delicious to me. Large chunks of tofu had shrimp placed on them and them were fried so the outside was crispy and the inside was soft. The sauce was savory. This dish is a typical example of Hong Kong cuisine.

We also ordered Buddha’s Delight, another typical vegetarian Chinese dish, however due a mix-up the dish never came. The waiter said it was still in the kitchen, but ultimately it may or may not have been given to the table next to us. Luckily, the staff was polite and took it off the bill.

Afterwards, they served a complimentary dessert. It resembled tapioca pudding but was thinned to be a soup like texture and tasted instead like a warm sweet soup with pureed mung bean at the bottom. This type of dessert is called tong sui, translated to “sugar water.” There are apparently many varieties of tong sui, but this type of dessert is exclusive to Hong Kong/Cantonese cuisine and not served in other regions.

Obviously, more work is required to sample all of Hong Kong cuisine. Dim sum is a major part of it, which they don’t serve at X.O. Taste. Also, we didn’t sample any congee, seafood, or the casseroles. Or even the infamous XO sauce, which apparently is named after cognac and developed during the 1980s in Hong Kong. According to Wikipedia , the sauce is spicy and “served with seafood containing roughly chopped dried seafood, such as scallop, dried fish and shrimp that has been cooked with chili, onion, garlic and oil.”

Total: $61, excluding tip for four entrees. Most of the dishes are around $10.