The common-or-garden Chinatown restaurant treats Ottawa food-lovers to interesting dishes that they’d in any other case need to journey to get pleasure from.
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Rangoon Restaurant
634 Somerset St. W., 613-680-8821, rangoonrestaurant.ca
Open: Monday to Thursday, 3 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 3 to 10 p.m., closed Sunday
Costs: Most shareable dishes beneath $20
Entry: Steps to entrance door, washrooms upstairs
After we requested our server at Rangoon what the chef had executed to make her chickpea-based appetizers so scrumptious, his response was a bit cagey.
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“Magic!” he stated.
Understanding as little as I do about Burmese meals, I might need believed our server had he stored his lips sealed. However we have been persistent and he spilled the beans. Or, on this case, the chickpeas.
These impeccably made fritters ($9) wowed us with their tastiness and textural complexity. How did the chef obtain these crisp-fried exteriors with quivering, virtually melting interiors that dropped at thoughts silken tofu? We have been informed that the tactic concerned including water to chickpea powder and slowly cooking the combination, stirring all of the whereas, till it was able to be refrigerated. Later, the batter was fastidiously fried to order. The outcome was as irresistible as they have been humble.
There was way more to find on the no-frills Somerset Road West eatery. Or, ought to I say, re-discover, since I did make a number of eye- and palate-opening visits there in 2018.
Once I returned in December final 12 months, I used to be completely satisfied to see that the family-run enterprise, which first opened in Ottawa in 2010 in a Gloucester Road hole-in-the-wall, was nonetheless making a go of issues regardless of the upheavals of the final 4 years.
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The one change within the menu that I used to be in a position to word was the addition of some primary wines and beers, together with pale ales from Spark Beer down the road. Beforehand, Rangoon was unlicensed. Now, you’ll be able to carry your individual bottles too, for the very affordable corkage payment of $10.
Talking of affordable, again in 2018 I famous that almost all of Rangoon’s shareable dishes got here in at beneath $20, and the identical one way or the other holds true 5 years later. It’s my flip to say, “Magic!”
Along with its reasonably priced costs, Rangoon’s menu features a welcome introductory web page explaining that Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation of 60 million those who was previously Burma, boasts a singular delicacies primarily based on the ethnicities of its inhabitants and the influences of neighbouring international locations together with India, Bangladesh, Laos, Thailand and China. It’s as much as you to style chef-owner Ngun Tial’s meals and join some dots.
The menu additionally appends stars to a couple particular dishes denoted as strategies by Tial. Comply with them!
You’ll be rewarded, for instance, with mohinga ($12.95), one in every of Rangoon’s 4 soups. It was a giant, savoury, comforting bowl that mixed skinny rice vermicelli and bits of basa fish in a yellow broth thickened with chickpeas, whereas a aspect serving of chiles added some zippy warmth. Large enough to be the centrepiece of a meal for one, the soup was break up simply into an appetizer for 2.
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Mohinga, a Burmese fish soup, plus chili powder at Rangoon on Somerset Road West in Chinatown.
Rangoon’s flippantly creamy coconut rooster noodle soup ($12.95) was left unstarred, however it too was scrumptious, in a low-key manner.
One other starred merchandise was the inexperienced tea leaf salad ($11.95) wherein fermented tea leaves imparted bitterness to a compelling dressing for romaine lettuce, whereas a aspect bowl held bits of sliced chile and uncooked garlic for extra jolts of flavour.
Equally interesting was a tomato salad ($11.95), which was blessed with the identical magical dressing. Fortunately, the dressing made with imported fermented tea leaves is listed on the menu as a $10 take-home merchandise, however sadly, once I went in December, the restaurant wasn’t promoting any as a result of it needed to preserve its inventory of the cherished ingredient, which was working a bit low.
Of two appetizers, Burmese vegetarian spring rolls that got here with a tamarind dipping sauce ($6.95) have been starred, whereas these dynamite chickpea fritters weren’t. Whereas these massive and un-oily spring rolls have been distinctive, I’d have given the chickpea fritters some additional love too.
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Amongst 10 primary programs, solely shan rooster ($18.95) was marked with a star, and rightly so, it appeared to us. On this must-order dish, surprisingly tender chicken — dry-brined, I’d guess — mingled with punchily bitter pickled mustard leaves, rice noodles, an alluring sauce, peanuts, coriander and extra. For vegetarians, the dish is offered with tofu as an alternative of rooster.
Of six vegetarian objects, we went for the starred alternative of sliced eggplant simmered with spices, onion and garlic ($17.95), which got here with items of uncooked veg and a spicy, watery, tomato-y dipping sauce for good measure. The eggplant dish was good, however in all probability the one one of many starred objects that I wouldn’t immediately re-order the following time I’m going to Rangoon.
We tried two different shareable dishes — a beef and basil stir-fry ($20.95) that was markedly milder and extra garlicky than its Thai counterparts, and a sautée of shrimp in a tomato-y sauce ($19.95). They rounded out our meals with out outdoing the dishes that almost all excited us.
Beef and basil stir-fry at Rangoon on Somerset Road West in Chinatown.
After we tried Rangoon in December, we weren’t its solely company, however neither was it full. And but Tial’s restaurant continues to be a modest however exemplary eatery that treats Ottawa meals lovers to interesting dishes that they’d in any other case need to journey to get pleasure from.
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So it will appear, on condition that in case you google “Burmese eating places in Canada,” precisely 5 examples pop up. There’s one in Vancouver, one other that’s at the moment closed in Calgary, a 3rd in Edmonton, a fourth in Toronto, and final, however most probably not least, Rangoon.
Given how uncommon and even magical its meals will be, Rangoon deserves to be quite a bit busier.
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