We Finally Got In!

Here's an unexpected benefit of having a small child - you can get a table at practically any restaurant because you have to eat early. And thus, we were finally able to get a table at Burma Superstar at 5:30 PM (half an hour later and the small restaurant was packed). We have tried probably three other times to go to this restaurant, but gave up because we were told the wait would be 1 hour or more. It is a local San Francisco favorite, serving up unusual foods like fermented tea leaf salad, samusa soup and other delectable Burmese selections. This restaurant has been featured on the show Check, Please! Bay Area and on the Food Network, which turned it into an even more popular spot. It is also nice that Burma Superstar has a fair selection of vegetarian foods, or foods that they can adjust to make vegetarian, including their famous tea leaf salad.

We started with the samusa soup. It has a deep, spicy, rich curry broth with vegetables and chunks of potato samusas.

Someone once told me that this soup is supposed to induce labor, and that many pregnant women who were desperate for the baby to come out have ordered this soup. One of the three previous times we tried to get into this restaurant was during the last week of my pregnancy. Perhaps if we had gotten in and eaten this soup, little Emma would have arrived on time, or even early.

We also tried the fermented tea leaf salad. It has a lot of ingredients - split yellow beans, sunflower seeds, peanuts, tomatoes, lettuce, jalepenos, etc. - but the real star of the salad is the fermented tea leaves. Our waiter brought out the salad, explained each ingredient, then mixed the salad at the table. The salad was salty, spicy, crunchy, sweet and delicious.