Marked by a strikingly green chile, this item straddles the boundary between condiment (if served in sparing portions) and side dish (if heaped a little higher). It's shrimpy, peppery, and at the finish fruity, though whatever fruit might traditionally be called for in Southeast Asia has been supplanted by one more familiar from the Northeast U.S.: cranberries.
This annual Chinatown event, it's true, lacks the culinary depth and breadth of the ThinGyan Association Festival. Even so, typically you'll be able to enjoy mohinga, the Burmese rice-noodle fish soup, and several drier noodle dishes; the chilled coconut-milk concoction called shwe yin aye; and an assortment of homemade savories and sweets, such as the banana cake shown below in the rightmost stack of to-go containers. Burmese banana cake is invariably tinted a purplish red; I couldn't tell you why.
Myanmar Chinese Association of New York Summer Water Festival
Sara D. Roosevelt Park between Broome and Delancey Sts., Manhattan
www.MCAofNY.org
(The 2015 festival was held on July 18)
