Combo Meal 'A' at Burmese Kitchen

Jonathan Kauffman

Combo Meal A: Pork curry, vegetable, and rice ($7.50). Shrimp paste optional.

​
When Dennis Lin transformed his Larkin Express Deli into Burmese Kitchen a few years back, he didn't forget that lunch was his steadiest meal. Along with the crispy fried peas salad and the samusas, the fried golden tofu and the prawn and sour leaf, he came up with a simple list of combo plates that offer one of the best four-square noontime meals in the area. The choices are extensive: You can pair tea salad with beef curry ($8.50), or prawn with pumpkin with sauteed corn and onion ($8.50).

Combo A is the most basic -- chicken or pork curry, a choice of vegetables, rice, tea, and if he judges you interested, a dollop of dried shrimp paste. The pork curry has stewed so long that the meat, aromatics, and spices have melted together into a rich wash of flavor, a rendang-style curry without all the drama. Bamboo shoots have been sauteed with chile slices and turmeric, which turns them Crayola-pure yellow. They offer a welcome crunch, as well as that ripe funk that paralyzes some and has others picking up the last shreds with yellow-striped fingers, unwilling to leave the restaurant without clearing our plate.
Burmese Kitchen 452 Larkin (at Golden Gate), 474-5569.