4 /5 Jackie McMillan: Even in the rain, Hurstville offers such an impressive array of cultures and cuisines, it warrants exploration. After visiting Tienda Latina Hola Namaste for Peruvian corn, and Super Orange for Japanese snacks, we settled into the brightly lit Blue Heaven. While it looks like, and is, an Asian dessert bar offering icy piles of Korean bingsu and Thai mango sticky rice, they also do a lovely job with Burmese cuisine.
It’s run by Tommy Young, who also ran Pink Peppercorn on Oxford Street, the first Burmese restaurant I ever visited. The food has come a long way in the ensuing years, offering you a colourful and inviting insight into Myanmar’s most popular dishes. Blue Heaven rice ($14) introduces you to the country’s flavour palate. Throwing cloves, cardamom and cinnamon, their signature curry paste sits over a mound of white rice surrounded by salted peanuts, cool, crisp cucumber slices, fried chilli and shrimp dust, and sour roselle leaves. If you like the tangy pickle, pick up a jar from the shelves of Burmese delicacies at the front of the store.
Order a little banana-leaf wrapped package of steamed fish ($10.50) apiece: the cod topped with fragrant herbs is delicious. While laphet thoke—a funky blend of fermented tea leaves, fish sauce and dried shrimp, is the country’s culturally significant dish—we had such a good version at Sun’s Burmese Kitchen in Blacktown I wanted to branch out. The pork salad ($18), littered with big hunks of pork shoulder, was super-tasty with crisp cabbage, cucumber, tomato, coriander and shallots lashed in a spicy sweet and sour dressing. We rounded out our meal with barbecued duck ($21.90) marinated, grilled and served over a healthy collection of seasonal vegetables, with a hint of tamarind. BYO ($6/bottle) is happily accommodated, or you can indulge in their range of brightly coloured signature drinks.
List 15 Budget-Friendly Restaurants Near You in Hurstville, NSW (part 2)
