GRAPE VINE
AN INSOMNIAC'S JOURNEY TO DISCOVER YANGON'S BEST COFFEE
Source : THE MYANMAR TIMES & BUSINESS REVIEW
Finding the best coffee in Yangon is no easy task. This assignment requires long nights, little sleep and massive doses of caffeine a job this writer is well equipped to handle. Actually Myanmar has never been a traditional coffee drinking country it was always a tea culture that flourished and survived, probably due to the influence of the Indians during the times of Myanmar's British colonialism. People generally drink tea and men will often walk two or three miles to savour their favourite cup of tea, brewed to perfection .
Coffee was always an intellectual's drink until recent years when the age of consumerism first arrived in the nation. Nevertheless, coffee is enjoyed here and now it is making inroads at the corner teashop. My first stop for this report was at 1.30am to Equatorial Hotel's all night coffee shop.
"Sorry, madam, the expresso machine has broken down, and the one in the lobby has been locked away." Cakes? "Sorry, madam, that counter is lready locked." So what else is not under lock and key, at 1.30 a of m? "Nescafe coffee, madam." Hurried exit. Next stop the same night, a small dingy little shop on Strand Road called "Shwe Wa"...Golden Yellow. Several container trucks are parked nearby, and trucksters were sitting at tables on the sidewalk, eating rice and curry, nibbling on chips, drinking what one can safely assume not to be coffee. Do they have coffee, the real kind, not the instant or pre-mixed? "Sure do". Are you sure ? "Oh yes, quite sure." The tables on the pavement are tiny square wooden tables and you sit on tinier wooden stools. The coffee came 10 minutes later in a tiny cup, made without sugar but with thick sweetened condensed milk. Not at all aromic, but still rich, and with high caffeine content. (K30). By 6.30am, a corner eatery at the junction of Anawratha and Wadan streets is busy with customers. The coffee here is more fragrant, made thick with condensed milk, also K30. This shop has excellent Mohinga, THE breakfast dish of the nation. The next place visited, at a more reasonable time of day, was Cafe Aroma on Sule Pagoda Road.
It's a veritable oasis after the hot pavements underfoot and hotter sun overhead. It was not just the air-conditioning, it was the upscale decor, good service and the mood of the place which made you feel you have arrived where quiet chic is the norm and not an exception. Certainly, it's the most up-market place in the capital – equal to anything in Italy, Paris or Amsterdam. A "double shot expresso" (K400) shoots you up with enough energy to brave the 35C heat again. It is deliciously strong, and goes perfectly well with the cheese cake (K400 per slice).
The cakes and pastries come from the Nawarat Hotel bakery with a good variety of chocolate-coconut-jam-cream concoctions on sale. Cafe Aroma also offers fat free, home made ice cream, pizzas, a whole variety of snacks, and coffee upon coffee with diverse origins and flavours.
A row of high stools face the plate glass windows looking out to the pavement, where one can watch the country, if not the world, go by. One can also stare at the imposing facade of Traders Hotel just across the road.
Magazine and newspapers in the racks give you the excuse to linger.... and linger. They have the Myanmar Times, which one tourist, out of the five I saw there, immediately grabbed. He was still deep in it when I left half an hour later.
This outlet is the biggest and best of the three Cafe aroma shops; the other two are at Bogyoke Aung San Market and Yuzana Plaza. Fuji Coffee House is another of the few upscale coffee shops. It is way out on University Avenue, not far from Inya Road. Situated in a neat bungalow, there is a small pretty garden at the back. Next to it is a golf green where you can practise your putting if you feel so inclined. The shady umbrellas and shadier trees over white-painted garden chairs are very inviting especially in the summer heat. Unfortunately, the tables are set very near the kitchen, where the happy staff express their exuberance in joyful song. Ah well, back inside. There are also cosy private rooms apart from the tables set up between the counter and the cake glass case. Double Expresso here is K500. Unlike the Cafe Aroma, they served evaporated milk instead of pure milk. When asked if they have no other kind of milk, the helpful and concerned waiter wanted to know if I wanted to drink milk instead of coffee.The cakes here are also from the Nawarat Hotel. But, their own creations are worth menting, in particular the Fruit Sandwich: pieces of fruit and cream instead of peanut butter or tuna, but why not? Perfect for a warm day. (Four pieces for K600). Another cool concoction is coffee jelly(K500).
It would have been great to sit and sip coffee under the trees without the serenade, although it speaks well a place when the staff are happy. A very new place, barely six months old, is Cafe de Mio on Baho Street, not far from the Sakura Hospital of Sanchaung Township. It is located on the ground floor room in a block of flats, so the neighbourhood is not that great.
Inside, it is pretty and cute Italian decor - all the way. The mood is somewhat marred by loud Myanmar pop songs. Imported pure fruit syrups, olive oil, wines etc are als o available. Café de Mio have a menu of 15 different pasta dishes at prices ranging from K600 to K900. Double Expresso at K380 is the cheapest out of all coffee houses, but should be good, since the Brazilian Coffee I tried was excellent. (K300). The bacon and mushroom omelet (K350) could have had the bacon more crisp, but the tiny mushrooms were delicious, nestled in the light omelete which was creamy inside, crisp outside.
Cappuccino is the "in" coffee with the Myanmar yuppies, and this place has six varieties....among them, strawberry cappuccino, caramel, apple-cinnamon. They serve fragrant green tea as a chaser, for apparently the customers still demand this traditional Myanmar touch. They have a magazine rack, but NO Myanmar Times. The hotel cafes are also places where one can sip and chat quietly and if they offer buffet high teas, and a good chance to stuff yourself. The Inya Lake Hotel has one from 2:30pm to 5pm. Unfortunately I went on a Friday, and the highly popular seafood lunch buffet was not quite over. This buffet could not be cleared away since some of the lunchers were still not done, so it was disconcerting to see platters of crab claws set out where you are expecting to see bread pudding. Finally I spied the tea buffet is being served in one far corner.
They do have delicious bread pudding. Also eight kinds of fruits, including Kiwi Fruit and air-flown strawberries which you seldom see in other hotels; 10 kinds of cakes and trifles, six kinds of ice cream, two hot dishes, samosas and satay. And the coffee is delicious.
The milk is simple milk, praise be. With service tax, Tea for Two came to $7.28. or, in Myanmar currency, K2402. Expensive I suppose for locals. Traders Hotel has the city's best high tea buffet, at $5 (including service tax) for one, and it is served in the cosy lobby. There are two kinds of dim sum, curry puffs, sausage rolls and spring rolls, tuna and egg sandwiches, two kinds of scones, one made with chocolate rice (which may be the Brit retaliation to chocolate chip cookies), a cream cake, fruit tarts, marble cake and two kinds of chocolate cake. The best of all these goodies is a very smooth, rich chocolate cake that was worth the irritation of a vacuum cleaner.