Bagan
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Shop 4, 41 The Boulevarde
Strathfield NSW 2135
Phone (02) 8746 0666
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Overall Rating 7.9
Food 7.9
Ambience 7.4
Service 7.5
Value 9.1
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We're not prepared for Strathfield on a Saturday night. Bright lights blink and spill from Korean, Indian, Chinese and Japanese restaurants that jostle each other along the roads around Strathfield Square. People pack the footpaths, tennis courts echo to the thwack of balls and a parking spot can be ransomed for a small fortune.
We're caught in a convoy of vehicles, weaving in and out of car parks that are full and parking stations that close at 10pm on a weekend but stay open until midnight during the week, a twisted logic we can't unravel.
So we cruise the busy streets like randy teenagers looking for an outlet for their hormones. Except we are middle-aged curmudgeons hoping not to have to walk too far to Bagan, where we are already 20 minutes late for our dinner booking.
Bagan has a reputation for good food and unearthly good value and the distinction of probably being the only Burmese restaurant in Sydney. It's named after the ancient royal capital of what the British called Burma in the 19th century and which, in 1989, a repressive military government renamed the Union of Myanmar.
The country is home to 135 different ethnic groups and neighbour to Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. One third of its border is coastline. And the cooking reflects its geography. We can see all these influences at work in the biryani, sweet and sour balls, congee, samosa salad, char kway teow and fish-cake salad on the menu. But there are also more intriguing and less familiar curries, soups and noodle dishes.
Thankfully, the menu, encased in red velvet like a florid wedding album, features colourful thumbnail pictures of everything. So we pore over the photos, looking for the more unusual culinary relatives. The menu also thoughtfully includes a map and a potted cultural history.
Our earnest efforts at self-education mean we are slow to place our order with the helpful waitress. But we don't wait long before our dishes pour out of the kitchen. We feel as if we are at a wedding feast. Pae palarta is like paratha bread and a lighter, crispier, more delicate version I've never had. A dollop of dahl made from whole peas cooked to a green, nutty paste is on top with a scattering of fried garlic. Utterly moreish.
The pennywort (written as pennyworth) salad is worth every penny: bright with lemongrass and nutty with roasted ground rice. The grapefruit salad is, surprisingly, stronger and more funky with darker, sour flavours of fish sauce and tamarind. The fried pork roll makes me laugh because with its cabbage and thick batter, it's clearly the handsome ancestor of the dreaded Chiko roll.
Kai lan is the Chinese gai lan and is tossed in garlic and mustard seed, which has a hot bite that fools the uninitiated. It is served just cooked and at room temperature, rather than warm.
A hot hit comes from the roasted chillis that adorn kone boung or stir-fried pork, yet the dish is strangely bland. Much better is the fish-cake curry, which is made from curled cakes the texture of tofu in a turmeric-based sauce that is fragrant but not hot or creamy. One of our table objects to it but the rest of us shout him down.
The most intriguing dish is the kyay oo, which you can have dry or as soup. We go for the soupless soup and the skein of vermicelli and wide rice noodles, the delicate pork balls and yet more garlic is unbelieveably full of flavour for something so seemingly innocuous.
When we lift our heads up from our minor banquet, we can see the same ethnic traces that are in our food in the faces around the room. A long table of men with young children and teenagers is in the middle with couples and foursomes. Another large table of well-groomed, diplomatic types are speaking German and English and drinking a Canobolas Smith wine from Orange.
The room itself has reddish floorboards, a rust-coloured banquette, myriad different pendant lights, a harp-like stringed instrument and goddesses beckoning to the gold and burgundy tapestry hanging on the wall.
We bypass the Mr Pisa-style desserts (there are even pictures of the milk drinks, tea and coffee) and ask for ku fee, which sounds like it might be like the Indian kulfi sweet. Instead of being from boiled milk spiced with cardamom, this icy treat is made from evaporated milk and completely unadorned. We liked its reduced simplicity. We like Bagan for the same reason.
DIGEST
Food Lovers of Indian and Asian food will be intrigued by this excellent Burmese cooking.
Service Helpful and relaxed in a place so popular there are two sittings on a Saturday night.
Atmosphere Goddesses, tapestries and a traditional harp bring personality to this bright room.
Value Unbelievable. Feast for $12 a person; entrees are about $4.50 and mains from about $8.
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