About Me

I am currently a medical student at University of California- Irvine School of Medicine. When I am not in the library cramming away, you can find me in a small yet homey kitchen of my apartment. 

I started cooking in 2012 when I moved to the U.S., out of sheer desperate craving for my hometown cuisines. As a naive, inexperienced, yet hungry teenager, I called my mother back in Yangon, and asked for a recipe for "kyat-tar-arrloo-see-pyan", which literally means "chicken potato curry". I turned on my phone speaker and wrote down everything. In retrospect, it was less of a recipe and more of my mom way of implying you-cannot-hold-a-knife-honey-you-shouldn't-cook. But, being young and reckless, I went to the nearest Walmart, and bought a package of chicken thighs, a sack of potatoes, some garlic, onions and spices. Finally, I was in the kitchen, armed with a small pairing knife, and my mission was to cube the chicken and potatoes without harming myself or my roommate. Mission quickly aborted when I realized my knife was not equipped to cut through the bones. From then, things went downhill pretty quickly. I cut myself while peeling potatoes, burned the onions to the point they became dark crust on the pan, yet still managed to undercook the chicken. 

In a nutshell, my first cooking experience was similar to a crappy horror movie - I knew things were going to go badly, but still went into the room to check if the killer is there. But, that day, I did discover how much I enjoyed the process of cooking. The more I cook, the more captivated I became by the almost-spiritual experience of how unprocessed raw ingredients combine together to give dishes powerful enough to evoke our emotions. Behind each recipe lies a story of preserverence, creativity, love and history. Every time I taste a (well-thought out) dish, I felt a privileged invitation to get a glimpse of the individual's inner core. To me, this experience is priceless.

I also cannot take a picture, without looking like a serial killer. Don’t believe me. See for yourself below.

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