Good advice |
We attended the Burmese Friendship Association Curry Night
at Ermington and had a great evening. The answer to my question in the
title of this blog is – yes it can - read on!
Burma Campaign Australia
After an introduction from Dr Malia of the Burmese
Friendship Assoc, Zoe from Burma Campaign Australia
gave an insightful speech about the importance of not loosing focus on human
rights issues in Burma.
She emphasised that while there may be a lot of positive signs coming from politicians
in Burma
there are still a lot of issues that need attention.
Zoe also suggested that while Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party
only holds 6% of seats in Burma
the “civilian government” are happy to promote feelings of unity and well
being, but how will they react after next election when the NLD may take 50% or
more of the seats in parliament?
curry time |
Curry Time
If you see a sign stating “Tomato Sauce Burmese – Very Hot”
you should believed it. If the hosts are warning you about the sauce it is
guaranteed to be more than just hot and it was. I noticed every Anglo Aussie
who tried it had just a little speck on their spoon and then decided to leave
it alone.
The curries on offer were fantastic, goat meat; beef,
chicken, seafood and vegetarian varieties were on offer. Plus, pickled
vegetables, rice and mohinga (fish soup as a starter). All home cooked and full
of flavour. I love a good goat meat curry, and the one on offer was delicious.
You have to be careful of the bones, but the taste of a good serving of goat is
amazing.
Entertainment
This was when I started hallucinating …
Have you ever seen Burmese line dancing? Was it the tomato
sauce or was I really seeing the Burmese John Denver singing “Country roads, take me home. To the place I belong, West Virginia, Mountain Mama Take me home,
country roads”. I had to wonder when the Mountains of West Virginia moved
to the outskirts of Yangon.
The fun continued when anyone who thought they could sing
took to the stage and had go … we heard “Proud Mary” sung by the Burmese John
Fogarty, “Fernando” by the Burmese ABBA, and the list went on.
Lorenza and I loved it – these people did not care about
anything but having some fun. It was infectious – who could not enjoy
themselves in the midst of such a fun and friendly bunch of people. I started
believing John Denver really was Burmese!
Was the door prize rigged?
Another fun part of the night was the draw of the lucky door
prizes and raffle tickets. The people at the table next to us must be the
luckiest family alive – every person at the table won a prize – next time I am
sitting with them!
The raffle and door prizes was fun – they made sure lots of
people got a small prize which made everyone feel included. I was really
touched when some of the people we shared our table with gave their prize away
to a kid who had not won anything. It put a smile on the young boys face and
made everyone feel warm and fuzzy.
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Lovely traditonal dancing |
Traditional dancing
Three beautiful young ladies performed some traditional
Burmese dances. They told a story in the dance which I must admit I did not
really follow. That aside their costumes and dancing were lovely.
Dessert & More Dancing
Dessert line |
You can tell from the photo of the line up for dessert that
the offerings were delicious. After everyone had tasted the pastries, etc there
was more serious dancing done – the Chicken dance, the Macarena, the Bunny Hop,
the Hokey Pokey and all those favourite party dances were encouraged plus a
conga line through the tables – hell after a good curry why not have some fun!
Thanks for a great night!
Great read Rob. There used to be a short lived Burmese restaurant in Balmain in the late 70s. So we actually tried Burmese food (delicious) before we had Thai. Now Thai restaruants are on almost every street corner, yet no Burmese - Dillon
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