Yellow Pa Taut
By
Burmese is the new Thai, and the paratha is that truly exotic, taste bud-assaulting cuisine’s answer to every lackluster satay stick you’ve ever sucked down your face-hole. Think of it as a cross between layered puff pastry and your standard-issue Chinese take-out joint’s all-time crispiest scallion pancake. It’s pretty much perfect at Yellow Pa Taut – sliced into neat greasy wedges and arranged around a bowl of saucy curried chicken and yellow split peas for pleasurable dipping.
The mixed salads steer your meal in an even wilder direction, with ultra-intense combinations like the gin thouk’s pickled ginger, dried shrimp, fried yellow peas, fried garlic, sesame seeds, and peanuts. Close to 850 Bryant down in SOMA, this spare little place does a steady lunch-time business with lawyers, judges, jurors, and bail bondsmen; the dinner crowd is considerably thinner so don’t worry about waiting long, if at all, for a table in the evening. The chef-owner is extremely nice and accommodating. For the service, relatively reasonable prices, and underdog status, I like it better than Burma Superstar, Clement Street’s long-running, delicious, yet well-travelled bastion of Burmese. When you come, be sure to stop at a corner store for beer as a license is still forth-coming.
15 Boardman Place b/w Bryant and Fargo
701-8188
