Takeover: MiMi Aye
One of 'the coolest woman in food' and author of MANDALAY: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen
Hi and welcome to my newsletter, a celebration of cooking, vegetables and life. It’s great to have you here. If you have found yourself here but are not yet subscribed then you can sort that out below….
My cookbooks (there are five) are available here. The latest is Easy Wins - a Sunday Times bestseller. There are hundreds of free recipes on my website which you can find here.
From Anna:
Once a month I hand my newsletter over to another voice whose food and writing is worthy of your attention. This month I am so please to hand you over to MiMi Aye.
Mimi grew up by the British seaside but has been eating and cooking Burmese food all her life. Her recipes from salad fritters to egg curry have me running to my spice drawer. Burmese food is under celebrated here in the UK. MiMi's book Mandalay is such an amazing resource to dive into full of storytelling and Burmese flavour as MiMi explains, it’s been called "Indian food on acid". Sign me up for that.
I am so thrilled to have MiMi here to tell you a little more of her story and to share with us some really brilliant recommends from an adorably named place to shop to a new book to pre-order and a recipe for a tomato salsa that’s going to become a regular fixture in my house. MiMi also keeps an update resource of ways which you can support the people of Myanmar.
Thanks MiMi, it’s great to have you here.
Anna x
From MiMi
I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never actually wanted to be a chef. I do like to cook and to feed people, but honestly, I just love to eat. While I’ll try anything once, my tastes lean towards the food of Mandalay, the last royal capital city of Myanmar (aka Burma) but Burmese cuisine is so localised, there aren’t many places in the UK you can get the ‘real deal’.
So when the chance came along for me to write a whole book about Burmese food, it made sense to focus on the dishes that I loved, so I could spread the joy but also maximise the number of people who could make that food for me!
And that food includes oodles of noodles, lush curries, zesty salads, spicy stir-fries, hearty rice dishes, soothing soups, the crispest fritters and so much more - Rukmini Iyer, author of the Roasting Tin series, was the stylist on my book and she described it as “like Indian food on acid”!
So my book is called ‘MANDALAY: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen’ because Mandalay is where most of my recipes come from but it’s also very much where my heart lies. My father and brothers were all born in Mandalay, my parents met at Mandalay Medical School and, growing up, I spent most summers at my grandparents’ house there. Everyone was familiar with this imposing building but to me it was just home. I’d practise my dance moves in the front room while my grandpa’s radio blared the BBC World Service, poke around my grandma’s thanaka at her bedside table, steal fritters from the kitchen and drift off to sleep as my mother fanned me under the mosquito net strung over our canopy bed.
You may have heard about the devastating earthquake in Myanmar. The epicentre was Mandalay. Thankfully, my family there are safe and accounted for but many others have not been so lucky and the aftershocks continue. The death toll is now 5,000+ and the survivors need our support, especially as the Burmese military junta are attacking civilians (and have done since a coup in 2021). Better Burma, Advance Myanmar, Medical Action Myanmar and Prospect Burma are all trusted organisations you can donate to, who will ensure your funds will go where it’s needed.
As for my grandparents’ home, the top half collapsed in the quake. It was crushing to see it reduced to rubble, but at least my loved ones are still alive.
Things to read
‘This is our Indigenous food’: This recent Vittles piece by Makepeace Sitlhou on preserving Kuki-Zo food in the midst of conflict in Manipur is excellent. The cuisine also overlaps with what the Burmese eat, which I guess is unsurprising considering we share a border.
WOMAN, EATING by Claire Kohda: A uniquely gripping take on vampire lore, where the undead protagonist is wrestling with more than the usual issues with identity - I devoured this book by the multi-talented Kohda in one night.
THE JACKFRUIT CHRONICLES - Memories and Recipes from a British-Bangladeshi Kitchen by Shahnaz Ahsan. Ahsan’s forthcoming culinary memoir is one of the best I have ever read - each recipe is given life and colour and love.
Things to fill your kitchen with
I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with enamel splatter-ware which I buy from the brilliant Sous Chef - their Kapka x Sous Chef Galaxy Splatter range is currently on sale.
I’m a huge fan of WASO who sell Japanese ingredients as well as excellent ready meals such as proper tonkatsu, which for the avoidance of doubt is a crispy pork cutlet and not a curry!
There are a handful of Burmese foodstuffs which you can really only source online, such as our iconic pickled tea leaves aka lahpet - I get mine from the adorably-named Pinky Snow Foods UK.
Things to watch and listen to
LA GRANDE MAISON TOKYO is a wildly compelling J-drama starring Takuya Kimura from the legendary boy band SMAP, which follows the efforts of a disgraced chef to build a new culinary team and win back his Michelin stars. If you liked Midnight Diner, you’ll love this.
K-FOODIE MEETS J-FOODIE - Two megastars - one, Yutaka Matsushige, a beloved Japanese actor, and the other, Sung Si-kyung, Korea’s top foodie and balladeer, take each other to their favourite restaurants. That’s the basic premise, but it’s somehow a glorious watch.
THE BEAR - I was so in love with the first couple of seasons of this Chicago-based restaurant comedy-drama starring Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White that I even made a bunch of reels where I recreated some of their dishes (spoiler: the omelette wasn’t as good as it looked). The third season dipped a little in quality, but I have high hopes for the next, which I think is out in June.
STRONGER MINDS podcast with Kimberley Wilson. Wilson is a psychologist who specialises in brain nutrition but she also has a great sense of humour, so I feel healthier and happier just listening to her words of wisdom.
Things to do right now
The world is going to hell in a hand-basket but if you can do anything to make it a better place, I promise you’ll feel better too. Find a cause you believe in and support it however you can, whether it’s by writing to your MP, signing petitions, donating money, going to protests or just spreading awareness, in person or online. For Myanmar, I keep a constantly updated list of ways you can support here.
MiMi’s recipe for Burmese Charred Tomato Salsa (Pan Htway Hpyaw)
This popular condiment is traditionally ladled on top of rice and served with soupy curries but, being a salsa, it can be eaten with practically anything. It’s made from surprisingly very few ingredients but it will dance on your tongue like fireworks. It's usually made as a smooth salsa, but feel free to keep it chunky. The important thing is to be brave and let the ingredients blacken and burn, as that’s the magic that makes the salsa sing.
3 medium tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, skin on
3 green finger chillies
5cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
½ teaspoon salt
juice from ¼ lime
coriander leaves, shredded
SERVES 4 - 6
Place the tomatoes, garlic and chillies on a piece of foil and char their skins using a cook’s blowtorch, or under a very hot grill. Open your windows or turn on your extractor fan as it will get very smoky and pungent, especially when charring the chilli. You want the skins to blacken quickly without cooking the flesh inside.
Remove and leave to cool, then peel the garlic and place in a food processor or blender. Keep the charred skins on the tomatoes and chillies, and blitz with the garlic to a rough paste. If you prefer a chunkier-textured salsa, you can chop the ingredients by hand. Scoop out the salsa and place in a small bowl. Add the ginger, salt and lime juice, and mix well. Top with the coriander leaves and serve as a side dish or as a dip for your favourite snacks.
Kindly shared from MANDALAY: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen
I’m growing 5 varieties of tomato on my veg plot this year so will be looking for imaginative ways to use them. The salsa is intriguing, I will definitely give it a try.
The salsa recipe sounds fantastic and so similar to the cooking style of Northeast Indian states. Cannot wait to try it with some tortilla chips.