Burma Place: New Burmese Restaurant in Rancho Bernardo (And STAND WITH UKRAINE)

“The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit.”

– John D. MacDonald

So this is a food blog and eventually, I am going to get around to reviewing a new Burmese restaurant  But it is going to take me a long time to get there…..This post is not designed to be a recollection of events in my life that have ended with gloomy outcomes but, instead, a tribute to peoples who have fought the good fight and continue to do so.  It is, for me, a hope as I watch the news in Ukraine.  This is not the only place of concerns-events of past few years have highlighted racial injustice at home that most of us were too insulated to see.  Nation after nation has erupted with ethnic violence.  It has been hard to read the news.  Suffering, sorrow, injustice.  We cannot forget that there are successes, too.  Places where ethic cleansing has ended, where people are less oppressed.  But when we look at sorry, the Ukraine is the newest chapter.

In the 1990s my brother and I went to South Africa.   Apartheid had just fallen, Mandela was in office and I felt as if I had personally been part of changing history.  I don’t know if those Shanties we erected on University campuses or the constant push we made to have our country enact sanctions were the catalyst for change but I knew it hadn’t hurt.  It seemed time to go and see a place I had rallied against for so long.  I didn’t expect it all to be perfect but I was excited.  My brother was to work in Durban, and I arranged to help in a hearing clinic in Soweto.  South Africa was reeling with change but I was shocked that we seldom saw white South Africans interacting with black South Africans.  I had expected more of the white South Africans-I had been disappointment in my government so many times and assumed that the majority could really not have supported apartheid but apparently the feelings ran deeper and meaner than I had expected.  My only comfort was that white South African one after another complained of the US economic sanctions and it really warmed my heart-maybe all of those letters (remember those) I wrote to President Reagan worked.  I was so thankful that the sanctions had been so hated.  Sanctions 1-Apartheid 0.  The Audiologist who was to meet me and take me to the University and clinic in Soweto arrived and looked me up and down when she came to pick me up.  I asked if I was properly dressed as it was hot and I was very informally dressed.  She said my dress was fine but she had never had a white person ride in her car before.  Obviously, she was a black South African. I did not know what to say.  I asked it it was ok if I rode and she said immediately said yes but did I want to ride? I did.  She seemed surprised.  What was particularly heartbreaking was that in Soweto she worked with people of all colors but no one white person had ridden in her car?  In retrospect this was not so unusual-it was a period of change after decades of racial divide.  Apartheid was over but neither group had much experience with each other.  I do hope when her white coworkers look back that they feel acute shame about not being even willing to ride in a car with a black person.  Acute shame for making her still feel not worthy.  It is not lost on me that poor treatment of people of color is not just a problem in South Africa but at the time, I couldn’t help thinking that this was a moment in history when people were being tested and her coworkers failed the test.  Zimbabwe, in contrast, seemed like a paradise-black, brown and white people were often seen eating in public or having conversations. For a few years to follow I often spoke of my hopes for South Africa’s future-to follow along this path of Zimbabwe. I know that it was not quite so rosy as it seemed, but the strong feelings I had-particularly after leaving South Africa-is something I will hold with me forever.  The period of racial tolerance was very short lived in Zimbabwe and changed drastically a few years later in 2000.  But twenty-two years later, the peoples of Zimbabwe still continue to struggle to get back to the place I had admired.  It isn’t over for Zimbabwe and South Africa makes progress even if it is slow.

And then there is Myanmar.  Aung San Suu Kyi was freed and while she had not been the leader we hoped,  I was hopeful that she would learn, that she would move into complicated tribal issues.  Instrumental to this period of change, the US had prohibited investments in Myanmar and there had been a public outcry for Aung San Suu Kyi to be released.  I felt we had helped create this more democratic county.   Once again, we had used monetary clout. I am aware that a theme of this post is the US using monetary advantage to shape events in other countries.  I am going to just have to say that when it comes to human rights, I am game for all the cards a person, country or world has to play to be played.   It is true that there was only a 10 year, not so peaceful break between a very open military-led government to a softer, gentler government in Myanmar (that was still pretty intent on killing the Rohingya) but opened up some possibilities for quite a few other ethnic groups.  Elena spent a summer working there right before the 2021 coup.  Things are not good, now but the people still protest and stand up.  The people can’t be put down.  It isn’t over.

I know this is a food blog and I need to get to that. I have posted several recipes that Elena and I both have made since my visit and her return from Myanmar.  I was surprised to find that we now have a Burmese restaurant in Rancho Bernardo.  Ivan and I gave it a try a few weeks ago.  I had the Shan noodles which were not as spicy as I would have hoped for but were still nice.  I had to remind myself that Burmese cooking is just the cooking of one cultural group in Myanmar.  Each ethnic group brings it’s own take to many of the dishes and while they look like Thai or even Chinese, they are far more subtle in many cases and far milder in flavor.  The Shan are the largest ethnic group and many of the specialties at the Burmese Palace seemed to me, at least, to be Shan.  Ivan’s dish was really delicious-he had the chili beef which had more spice.  I returned today to try a few other items.   I gave the pepper chicken a try as well as the roti bread with coconut curry.  I really liked the chicken but I am sucker for bread and the roti did not disappoint.  The coconut chicken curry was so good that next time, that will be my main dish….  Food invokes powerful memories and eating this food reminded me of the hope I had when I was in Myanmar. Today I reminded myself that that hope is not over.  Myanmar can rise from under the group of their oppressive generals.

So it brings us back to Ukraine.  This is not the first time Ukraine has had to declare and fight for its right to be independent.  They have done it before and they can do it again.  Besides watching the news and crying, there is there is only so much we can do but we CAN speak with our pocketbooks.  This does work and it is so easy to do. Maybe all you do is switch brands of toilet paper or you DON”T eat at Subway.  The Wall Street journal has this to say (used w/o asking for permission):

Opinion: Stop buying from these companies. They’re funding Putin’s war.

By Dana Milbank

March 16, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a virtual speech before Congress on March 16. In his gut-wrenching address to Congress, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the United States for more — and more he will get. U.S. leaders across the spectrum saluted Zelensky after he spoke to them Wednesday from Kyiv in his olive-drab T-shirt — part Winston Churchill and part Che Guevara. For all the cheap politics of the moment (Republicans reflexively blaming President Biden and refusing to applaud when Zelensky thanked Biden), Washington is uncommonly unified in purpose. Neither lawmakers nor the administration support a U.S.-led no-fly zone or any other troop commitment, and congressional hawks are successfully pushing Biden toward giving Ukraine whatever weaponry it desires, likely including aircraft.

But Zelensky made another ask on Wednesday morning, and it’s something all Americans can help with. We can stop buying the products of businesses that continue to fund Vladimir Putin’s war machine, even after its full horrors — indiscriminately targeting civilians, murdering children — are obvious to the world. “All American companies must leave Russia. … Leave their market immediately, because it is flooded with our blood,” the young leader said, asking lawmakers “to make sure that the Russians do not receive a single penny that they use to destroy our people in Ukraine, the destruction of our country, the destruction of Europe. … Peace is more important than income.”

Most American companies get that. Some 400 U.S. and other multinational firms have pulled out of Russia, either permanently or temporarily, according to Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who has kept the authoritative list of corporate actions in Russia. Oil companies (BP, Shell, ExxonMobil) and tech companies (Dell, IBM, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter) led the way, and many others (McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola) eventually followed. But, according to Sonnenfeld, there are, at the other extreme, 33 companies (as of Wednesday afternoon) that form a “hall of shame,” defying demands that they exit Russia or reduce their activities there. “They are funding the Russian war machine, and they are undermining the whole idea of the sanctions,” Sonnenfeld told me. “The whole idea is to freeze up civil society, to get people out on the streets and outraged. They’re undermining an effective resolution” and increasing the likelihood of continued bloodshed. Those who want to stop Russia’s murderous attack against Ukraine should stop investing in or buying the products of these companies.

Koch Industries, whose owners gave to right-wing causes for years, is now financing Putin’s war. The people who make Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper, Vanity Fair napkins and Georgia-Pacific lumber are abetting the spilling of Ukrainians’ blood.

Like Reebok shoes? They’re being used to stomp on Ukraine. Authentic Brands Group, which also owns Aeropostale, Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers and Nine West, among others, is in the hall of shame.

Before you bite into a Cinnabon (or Carvel ice cream, Schlotzsky’s sandwich or Auntie Anne’s pretzel) consider that parent company Focus Brands is taking a bite out of democracy in Ukraine.

So is Subway. While selling you the All-American Club, it’s giving Ukrainians the Cold-Cock Combo by refusing to cut loose its 446 Russian franchises.

Several other household brands — Truvia and Diamond Crystal salt (Cargill), Avon cosmetics (Natura), LG appliances, ASUS laptops, Mission tortillas (Gruma) and Pirelli tires — are produced by companies on the shameful list.

Are you or your mutual fund invested in Halliburton, Baker Hughes or Schlumberger? Then you should know that these oil-services companies could deal a huge blow to Putin’s ability to wage war — but they choose profit instead.

Let’s name and shame all the others among the 33: advertising firms BBDO, DDB and Omnicom; accountant Baker Tilly; industrial companies Air Liquide, Air Products, Greif, IPG Photonics, Linde, Mettler Toledo, Nalco and Rockwool; French hotelier Accor and retailers Auchan, Decathlon and Leroy Merlin; German wholesaler Metro; cloud service Cloudflare; International Paper; and Sweden’s Oriflame Cosmetics.

Let’s stop Putin.  It is NOT over.