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As we eat without pausing to inhale, Nila tells me about her childhood growing up in the 70s in London: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018There were six of us and my parents. I remember eating cornflakes for the first time thinking \u2018what is this? Cold milk?!\u2019 this was gross because we don\u2019t really drink milk in Burma and it had gone all soggy.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She gestures at the ohno kaukswe [literally translated as coconut noodles] in front of us, which I\u2019ve been trying and failing not to stare at as we talk. It\u2019s a thing of beauty: chicken coconut noodle soup, thickened with toasted chickpea flour and garnished with boiled egg, fresh coriander, crispy onions and chilli. \u2018There were a lot of ingredients you couldn\u2019t get, you know, we kind of forget what it was like in the 70s. The food phenomenon here wasn’t as diverse\u2026so my mum used to make noodle dishes with spaghetti\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While substituting noodles for spaghetti might sound like sacrilege in today\u2019s age of super-convenience, it certainly tastes like nostalgia to Nila as she goes on to say it\u2019s a variation she replicates at home on the regular. The subject of authenticity comes up again, and Nila ex plains that in a country with over 135 different confirmed ethnicities, \u2018you\u2019ve got the same ingredients, the same dish, but each dish can be so different from family to family.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018All Burmese people – it’s not just me – are hugely passionate about food. They love cooking their food, even if they’re not \u2018in\u2019 it, you know, they don’t work in that profession. So there are some amazing Burmese home cooks.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nila\u2019s is situated on Third Avenue in Trafford Park, on a random-ass New York-style grid of streets which used to be a Ford factory car park. With covid and WFH rendering the surrounding business parks near-barren (and being next to a Gregg\u2019s), the footfall just isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A really exciting solution to the absence of her loyal return customers – at least while we navigate\u00a0 new working lives – may be in the form of intimate supperclubs and cooking classes (a thousand times yes). Her amazing curries are also condensed into pastes and her chilli-garlic dipping sauce is bottled and available for people to order, supporting this hidden gem during this bastard pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eatmcr.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Untitled-design-24-1024x576.png\")
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