Mimi Aye - Mandalay
Mandalay is a gorgeous bright and cheerful book written by Mimi Aye, food writer, supper club host and Burmese cuisine advocate. This book really stands out on my bookshelf as it is a gorgeous bright yellow, not only is the outside beautiful but so are the recipes and stories inside. It is written beautifully, it looks inviting and it really is.
Before buying Mandalay I knew very little about Burma (or Myanmar) and certainly nothing about the food. Mimi writes with such passion and such fond memories that you cannot help but smile while you are reading and be excited to get stuck in and start cooking. One of the things I loved reading about the most was the idea of living somewhere where you greet each other asking “have you eaten yet?” Truly a place after my own heart.
When I got the book the bright sunshine yellow and beautiful pattern could not help but make me smile, the first recipe is the tofu fritters which really got me looking and relooking, they look utterly delicious. Also any book that starts with fritters can only be brilliant in my eyes. I have never been a huge tofu fan so the fact this recipe was and still is the stand out recipe still makes me laugh to myself.
If you have never cooked Burmese cuisine and are not sure what dishes to pair then fear not, Mimi has put together lots of menu ideas for all sorts of scenarios which make it nice and easy as you know that the dishes will work really well together.
e book starts with a history of Burma and lots of Mimi's memories. If the history and background knowledge is not your thing you can just skip forward to the recipes which are plentiful The cuisine draws it's influences from Thailand, India and China although weirdly nothing is spicy, all of the recipes I have made have been flavourful and yet not in the least bit hot.
What I love the most about Mandalay though is the gorgeous food and how well the recipes work. I have tried a few different dishes and they do work really well, free of moderations which is always a good thing. The Burmese fried chicken, onion sticky rice and creamed sweetcorn were insanely good and will definitely be repeated many times over. The rice the biggest surprise.
Whilst Burmese cuisine might not be a cuisine any people know or think about, if you are experimental and like to try new things then this is definately worth buying, I love it and use it often. You don’t need to be skilful and the recipes are written well enough that they are easily followed and work out really well.
Recipes 7/10
Readability 7/10
Knowledge learnt 6/10
Total 20/30