Inle Myanmar Restaurant, Peninsula Plaza, Singapore

I've been to this place before, but there's something about being one of the odd non-Burmese persons in a Burmese restaurant which made me suspicious if I was getting the real stuff. So I made it a point to get my colleague (an exiled Burmese prince) along for my next visit.

We started with a basket of shan-toe-hu-kyaw which is basically deep-fried Burmese beancurd. This was quite nice, it had a different texture from Chinese beancurd and tasted almost eggy. Not too bad a start.

Although this dish may not look like anything tasty, this was one of the winners of the night. Crispy eel served with a slightly spicy and tangy sauce. Eat this on its own or with the sweet chili sauce; a nice crunchy appetizer.

The prawn salad was decent. It tasted alot heavier (because of the oil?) than Thai versions but still wasn't too bad.

The spicy soup was quite a let-down. It was not served hot (heat-wise) enough and just didn't have anything much in it.

Wow, if you thought the spicy soup was bad, the vegetable soup reigns as the worst. Avoid this repulsive water and rabbit food concoction if you ever dine here.

Now, this was exactly what I needed to clear the taste of those two soups. Burmese pork curry is similar to a dry curry like the Malay rendangs. It goes nice with that salty and spicy "chutney-like" condiment on the side.

The pork with pickled mango wasn't too bad although the pickled mango was way too salty. Maybe it was supposed to be salted mango but the term got lost in translation.

The pork in spicy bean sauce was pretty good. But being another pork dish with a spicy gravy, it sort of got overshadowed by the pork curry.

Shwe taung khau hswe is a flat egg noodle dish with chili spiced pork, fish cake and hard-boiled egg. The blend of flavors of the spices, coriander and oil made this delectably tasty. Great stuff for a one-dish meal.

The fried broad rice noodles were decent. Nothing really special or Burmese about it.

This dessert hpa lu da is supposedly a must-try and it was pretty good. Ice-cream, egg pudding, jelly, milk and rose syrup. This cool combination of ingredients proved rather refreshing. Oh, you can catch a glimpse of the Burmese Prince's arm in the background, let's say, "Mingalaba!", which basically means "hello".

Myanmar beer tastes like soda. Extremely light, it's almost like a soft drink which isn't too bad if you're in the mood for something light. Inle has some hits and misses but their hits are worth a visit. Tata! (Goodbye in Burmese)

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