Myo Lin Thway and his wife and business partner Rebecca Nant are determined to share their native Burmese culture and cuisine in their adopted New York home. "People know about Chinese food, Indian food, Thai food, all of our neighboring countries' food, but not Burmese food," Thway told Hell Gate. "My wife and I take that personally."
So more than 20 years ago, the couple started making stuffed palata, the grilled-to-order flatbread that Thway calls "Burmese peoples' favorite breakfast," at their church's annual fair. It was such a success that they played around with NYC food festivals for a while, and even launched a pushcart at one point.
A booth at the Queens Night Market followed, a weekly, seasonal gig that they combined in recent years with two ill-fated food court operations, one in the Queens Center Mall, the other in Midtown Manhattan, both since closed. Finally, though, the couple went all in, and last week opened their first standalone restaurant: a comfortable and colorful celebration of Burmese cooking in prime Astoria called, as always, Burmese Bites.
