

Mimi’s Aye’s effervescent observations about food have gained her a large following online and her new recipe book tells wonderful tales of a childhood spent between Burma and Kent. She’s been shadowed by by the ‘Military Informer’ on family holidays in Burma, is conflicted by seeing people flying over pagodas in hot air balloons and loves nothing more than exploring Japanese life and food and blasting out a bit of late night Karaoke. I’m delighted to have popped around to Mimi Aye’s house for a chat and I’m sure you’re going to love her just as much as I did.
On this episode we cover:
How to become a food writer
Making fun of Masterchef
Attracting a big social media following
Cooking with Mat Follas Masterchef
Chefs’ long hours
Giles Coren seems to have a few quid (listen to him HERE on this podcast)
Her book new Mandalay: Recipes and Tales of a Burmese Kitchen
Being a Burmese stowaway
Her parents arriving from Burma on Burmese Independence Day
Being discouraged by school to speak their own language at home
Holidays to Burma as a child
Growing up as brown person in Margate in Kent
Kent being the centre of UKIP
Getting BNP leaflets through the door
Leaving Burma ‘before Dad was stuck in prison’
Her mother selling all her jewellery
Friends and family members who don’t keep their heads down
Being shadowed by the MI (Military Informer) on family holidays
Having a slightly conflicted relationship with Burma
Feeling like you had to behave
Not wanting to be on a ‘no fly list’
Having her Burmese passport confiscated
Being a wrench having to choose to be just British
Lisa’s Fiji-Indian Dad not teaching any her any Hindi
Was there an open policy in the 80s to discourage immigrants from speaking their own language
How some immigrants integrate/don’t integrate
Being comfortable in a sarong
‘Burma’ versus ‘Myanmar’
The beautiful temples and landscapes of South East Asia
The ancient city of Bagan in the Mandalay Region
The Pagoda or the Buddha should be the highest thing in the house
People flying over pagodas in balloons
The thing with Thailand about point feet at people
Being in a shoes off situation
Angkor Wat in Cambodia
Lisa loving Jim Thompson’s House in Bangkok
Jim Thompson travelling (pillaging…?) South East Asia
Lisa developing a weird thing about wind chimes
Feeling guilty going to South East Asia if not Burma
Hiring a mini bus for all the family members to explore
The huge golden rock in the shape of the Buddha’s head need Yangon
Having a jolly in temple
Lisa feeling homesick when she veers too far from her hometown in Spain
(despite having travelled the world)
Finding Japan is the perfect family holiday
Never having had a bad meal in Japan
Occasional identified foodstuffs that it’s best not to ask about
Japan’s obsession with seasonal food
Fruit flavoured Kit Kats
Food between a very important element of travel
Malaysia versus Bali
The incredible food in Vietnam
Lisa’s favourite town in the world being Hoi An in Vietnam
…a 16th century Chinese fishing village
Lisa developing an obsession with wind chimes
Her cook book being almost like a diary of Burma
Her most memorable meal in Burma
Sexy tofu
The Burmese restaurants she would recommended (both London):
Lahpet in Shoreditch with great food and cocktails
Mandalay Golden Myanmar in Kilburn
Kids on bikes blasting out Bon Jovi in Mandalay
And blasting out Alanis Morissette at Karaoke in Japan