I had to go to the GF’s office near the Petaling Street area to collect some documents today, so decided to leave a bit early and go to one of the many anonymous Burmese cafes dotted around the area.
I went to Gantawin, perhaps the safest option as it actually has a marker on Google maps and possessed a single tattered English copy of its menu. I knew what I wanted, though and it wasn’t on the menu anyway (which did, however, offer a series of dishes containing carpets): mohinga and a cup of Myanmar tea.
The place itself was nearly empty, with a handful of men in the corner drinking beer. It was colourfully decorated, with huge posters of Burmese temples, two large posters of Aung San Suu Kyi and several statues of the Buddha garlanded in LED lights. There were also a couple of LED signboards, both flashing alternately in English and Burmese; one said ‘Myanmar tattoo’ and the other ‘Myanmar writing’. I wondered a bit if I should patronise it at all given what the Myanmar public attitude towards Rohingya genocide is, but then thought that was unfair; I was not, to the best of my knowledge, at a government-owned restaurant.
The waitress was a grumpy nun (I am unfamiliar with Myanmar culture and Buddhism so might be wrong) – with a shaved head, dressed in saffron and with face smeared with powder.
The mohinga was delicious to my untutored palate. It was not very fishy, indeed I wouldn’t have known it was fish, but was full of my favourite bits, the crispy chanay ki daal crackers. The tea was interesting, very like the strong, smoky tea you sometimes get in Pakistan made from tea leaves bought loose and in bulk from kiriana type traditional general stores.
Malaysians generally are rather unhappy about the current state of Petaling Street, complaining that it is overrun with Bangladeshis and Burmese and that it doesn’t have the character it used to, and the older biuldings (by KL standards) owned by foreign landlords who have no interest in the heritage so turn them into flophouses. I daresay this is true, but it is also an aspect of the local brand of xenophobia, one in which newspapers will always note when a crime is committed by an illegal migrant or migrant worker, and have vox populi or government officials talking about about how these people are ruining everything. Strange and sad and universal that the poorest migrants, the refugees and workers, are hated.