Myanmar - 14/07/09
There are no Burmese restaurants in Manchester. I am aware of one in London (Mandalay), but I think that is a lone example in the UK. Once an integral part of Britain's Indian Empire (and scene of some of the most furious fighting in the second world war) Burma / Myanmar consciously turned its back on the West following independence in 1948. Now it seems to revel in its status as a pariah nation. No surprise then that bilateral links between former imperial overlord and repressive military junta are so few and far between.
What was a surprise was that Burma visited me at work. On Tuesday 14th July the canteens at work was taken over by a 'Saffron lunch'. I work at the head office of The Co-operative, Britain's fifth largest supermarket chain. Since its foundation in the 19th century it has taken a firm interest in a wide variety of ethical issues - it pioneered Fairtrade, has firm commitments to animal welfare and marine stewardship, believes in supporting British farmers where possible. It also supports other campaigns such as (most recently) Amnesty's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and schemes to reverse the decline in numbers of bees. Currently The Co-operative is supporting the release of the film Burma VJ, a documentary about Burmese 'video journalists' exposing the true face of the military regime in their country: Members of staff were supplied with slips to add their voices to a petition calling on the Burmese authorities to release the imprisoned VJs. And the two canteens hosted a menu of Burmese food, ranging from rice vermicelli with fish soup to beef and potato curry, from fried pork balls with Burmese oil rice to iced coconut milk with sago.
Realising this was my best chance to try Burmese food (even if it was prepared by the catering giant Sodexho) I headed down for lunch, accompanied by Gemma, Nichola and Amy. The menu had obviously inspired many within the complex as there was a long queue. Those who wanted the barbecued leg of lamb kebabs - as most of us did - faced a ten minute wait around the servery. Already though we could see that the menu included lamb, beef, pork and fish. Used to cuisines from India or Pakistan / Bangladesh I was used to beef and pork being entirely omitted from the menus; this made a refreshing change.
Eventually fresh hot kebabs came out - a surprisingly generous two skewers of meat drizzled with yogurt. Rather than having this with a bed of Burmese noodles of coconut rice, I opted to cannibalise another of the main courses, and asked to accompany it with Burmese-style vegtable stir fry. This wasn't a problem, and the total price (of around £3.60-ish) was very reasonable.
After all that wait, the kebabs were not really anything special - just chunks of lamb on a skewer. They did not have any particular flavour or spice to them that I could pinpoint as being essentially 'Burmese'. However, the vegetable stir fry was delicious. It had been cooked in a dark sauce of soy and black beans which gave it a sweet / salty tang.
It was an unexpected way to pass a lunch time. But I felt it was more of a novelty - it did not really ask you read or learn about the plight of the people of Burma, it did not ask you to gt involved or take up the cause. It was a sideshow to that evening’s film premieres which The Co-operative were sponsoring. We ate and we chatted, while in Yangon protesters, activists and journalists were still sitting in jails. Still, it may have raised awareness of the situation out there, and has really to be taken as just part of the publicity. And one cannot deny that such campaigns are precisely the sort that more organisations should be taking part in.