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hsa*ba, burmese cookbook
by Tin Cho Chaw
Price: £20.00
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A cookbook that gives a rare view into a country and its culture through a collection of treasured family recipes.
Accompanied by beautiful earthy photography, this is an essential cookbook for anyone who wants to create simple authentic Burmese food.about the book
Review:
Time Out Magazine'Seldom does a book arriving with so little fanfare make such a splash in the kitchen. We'd been on the lookout for a good Burmese cookbook for years and came across this one, published in 2008, on the excellent blog and website www.hsaba.com ('hsa ba' is Burmese for 'please eat').
The author was born in Rangoon and moved to the UK when she was eight years old. The book is the result of remembered dishes from childhood and, more recently, visits to family still in Burma. The 100 clearly-written recipes have been honed and tested so that they work in western kitchens, but retain the taste of Burma.
Dishes such as tomato fish curry with fish sauce and red chilli, roasted eggplant salad, wing-bean salad and golden sticky rice had us heading back to the kitchen again and again to satisfy our cravings. Some, such as slow-cooked pork belly and mutton yoghurt curry recall the Chinese and Indian influences evident in Burmese food, while others, such as mohingar (a fish noodle soup, considered the national dish of Burma) and pickled tea leaf salad are emphatically Burmese.
The author has a background in graphic design, so this well-presented book doesn't feel self-published - it's as professionally put together as any other we've reviewed on these pages (and more so than many). As an added bonus, you can watch a selection of the recipes being cooked by the author on the website. This book deserves to get widespread international recognition.'
- Susan Low
From the back cover:
Early one morning during our stay in Rangoon, my cousin, Myint Han, came back from the market with two heavy plastic bags. 'You're in luck,' he told me. 'It was full moon last night so it's time to eat crab!' The Burmese believe crabs are at their best at this time of the month, when they come out to feed during a low tide.
The crabs were simply boiled and served with a sharp dip of soy sauce, lime juice, crushed garlic and chopped green chillies. The salty sour combination complimented the sweet succulent meat of the crab. It was the best crab I have ever tasted. After two breakfasts, and still only ten o'clock in the morning, I could not eat more than half a crab while my husband somehow put away nearly two. 'Hsa ba,'please eat, Myint Han encouraged. 'Htut hsa ba,' eat more!
Product details:
| Format: | Paperback 240 pages |
| Language: | English |
| ISBN: | 978-0-9559374-0-8 |
| Publisher: | Grassblades |
| Published: | October 2008 |
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what others are saying
- Thank you for such an amazing book! The pictures are a delight and I can smell the aroma of the recipes! There is a lovely South Indian restaurant I go to (almost everyday) near my office. On the day I took one copy to the chef (we talk a lot about Burmese cooking), he introduced me to two young Burmese boys he had just hired. They are refugees from Thailand. They are helping him read the titles in Burmese. I had seen the boys before and looked so scared and sad. Now when I walk in they smile huge sunshine smiles and greet me "Daw Gyi! Hsa*ba!" A deep bow of gratitude for the healing your book has brought to them. - Lynette
- ...delighted to find recipes my mum cooked for us as children. Fifty years on since leaving Burma, I can hopefully reproduce some culinary delights. - Donald
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I’ve browsed through your recipes and appreciate
how you’ve presented the recipes that are uniquely Burmese. Thanks for not catering to the ‘foreigner’s taste’. - Kyaw - Some of your recipes take me back to my grandmother's kitchen when I was tiny when she would cook Mohinga and semolina cake for us. - Anna
- I’ve tried a couple of your recipes and they are the first to taste like my Grandma’s & Great Nana’s cooking. Thanks for letting me remember them again through the taste of your food. - Rob
- I am so glad that someone has brought out an authentic burmese cookbook... all of my mums are written in burmese which she has to translate for me... - Trudy
- My anglo–Burmese parents came to UK in the early sixties and they were both good cooks. They passed on some recipes but not all so your book would fill in some gaps. - Liz
