A Taste of Burma is all but hidden in the far back reaches of Sterling’s Countryside Shopping Center, so you’ll have to look for it.
With about 100 dishes, the menu seems overwhelming, especially when so many of the dishes look vaguely familiar, so you can go one of three directions: order familiar dishes like pad Thai or wonton soup that are clearly not Burmese; stick with authentic dishes which are easy to identify by their names; or ask for guidance. Since there’s no point in seeking out a Burmese restaurant and not sampling the native foods, the last two options make the most sense.
One could easily make an entire meal of Burmese salads, which are refreshing, crisp and intriguing. The Burmese ginger salad ($7.95), an artful combination of pickled ginger mixed with shredded cabbage, bits of tomato, broad beans, split peas, sesame, small roasted peanuts and garlic chips and elusive seasonings, some lime juice perhaps and chili.
In another traditional salad, Lepthat Thoke, fermented tea leaves star as part of a similar mix just as the green mango salad features shreds of mango along with cabbage, onion, cilantro, crushed peanuts and hot chili flakes (both are also $7.95).
Pork and mango ($11.95) is one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes and well worth trying.
A Taste of Burma
Address: 126 Edds Lane, Sterling, Va.
Phone: 703-444-8510
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4:30 and 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon to 9 p.m. Sundays.
Credit cards: Major cards accepted
