How Mandalay Kitchen in St. Paul is exploring Myanmar's rich cultural identity through food
ST. PAUL, Minn. — When Chris Tunbaw opened Mandalay Kitchen last year, he knew he wanted to take his customers on a food journey reflecting the path of an exiled diaspora.
Tunbaw was among the first immigrants from Myanmar to come to Minnesota. His family fled in 1996 and lived in a Thai refugee camp for a few years before his mother decided to apply for refugee asylum. Eventually, they were sponsored by a church in downtown St. Paul, where they lived for six months.
"When we first came here there was like, five families here, you know, from the Burma diaspora," Tunbaw recalled. According to state data, there are now roughly 13,000 immigrants from Myanmar living in Minnesota.
He's conscious of the path that he, and others from the diaspora took in order to make a new life in the United States.
"There's a lot of exiled diaspora here that not only grew up in Burma but having to flee to Thailand, and then having to move to a third country, so I wanted to create an experience, a food journey per se, that kind of like, tailored to that crowd," he said.
It was Tunbaw's dream for a long time to open a restaurant.
"I think the first day we met he mentioned that he wanted to open a restaurant," his partner Abbey Kroll recalled. "So it's been cool to see over the last couple of years, to see it come to fruition."
In order to raise money for the restaurant, Tunbaw bought a sugarcane machine and went around to the Karen sports festivals around the Midwest. He recruited Kroll to help shave the sugarcane skin, and the two sold juice even on the hottest of days.
He had his eyes set on the building on the corner of University and Western avenues in St. Paul. When he learned that it was going up for lease, he put in a call with the owner, and it wasn't that much later that he had the keys in his hands.
Tunbaw focused on the cooking and the recipes, and Kroll helped him where she could, mostly on the back end, thanks to her experience in business. When deciding what to put on the menu, Tunbaw said he was conscious of choosing items that reflected the cultural diversity of Myanmar, with food from different ethnic groups.
"The restaurant is not like, a way to define what is Burmese food or Thai food," he said. "Our mission is not trying to change those flavor profiles."
One of the more popular menu items is the tea leaf salad, or lahpet thoke. Made out of fermented tea leaf and mixed with tomato, citrus, and parsley, it has a rich umami flavor. Tunbaw wondered if it would be accepted by the wider community. But he put it on the menu anyway — as Myanmar is one of the few countries where people eat full tea leaf — and it's been a hit.
Nan gyi thoke — a traditional Mandalay noodle dish cooked in chicken curry — has also been popular. And Tunbaw added his mother's mohinga recipe to the menu as well, as she was the one who made him fall in love with cooking.
"My mom is my biggest supporter," he said.
While living in Myanmar, he recalled that she owned a small shop and sold mohinga to people around town. She'd carry the broth and noodle dish on her head and sell bowls in order to earn money.
When Tunbaw opened the restaurant, he knew that he wanted to give back to his community. The second floor space features goods from young entrepreneurs, where they sell clothing and jewelry. It gives the young people a little extra boost, so they don't have to rent or lease or have that much of a startup cost.
"I feel like cultural representation is really important," Tunbaw said. "I mean food is rooted in identity, ethnicity and so I think having a restaurant like this, it gives a lot of like, sense of being proud."
He recalls instances where young people bring in their friends and introduce their favorite foods from Myanmar. He can sense the pride in them.
"It's been cool to see the response from people who have never been to Burma and getting to introduce it as well as people who have been there," Kroll said. "They say it feels like they're home and they get to have meals that they've had back there. Which is really cool."
