Short Stop: Zin Zin's Burmese Cuisine Delivers Flavor and Comfort

Denver's dining scene is making a big comeback — and we're hungering to go out. With so many new ventures and old favorites to visit, the choices can be overwhelming. So we're serving up Short Stop, with recommendations for things that should definitely be on your culinary short list. This week, find spooky good Burmese cuisine at Zin Zin's ghost kitchen.

What: Zin Zin's Burmese Cuisine

Where: 14200 East Alameda Avenue, Aurora (inside the Aurora Mall)

When: Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday

For info and ordering: Visit zinzinsburmesecuisine.com
The recent opening of Zin Zin's Burmese Cuisine in Aurora feels almost like destiny. Zin Zin Htun came to Denver as a refugee from Myanmar, and in 2017 began serving Burmese cuisine in the form of five-course cultural dinners at the original home of Mango House. This was before Mango House had its own food court, so the chef's dinners were set up as catered affairs, complete with music, dancing and information about Burmese culture and food.

Zin Zin's goal was to open her own restaurant, but a move to Indiana in 2018 for her husband's job sidetracked those plans — at least temporarily. While in Indiana, Zin Zin built up a catering business and created Burmese cooking videos on YouTube, keeping her skills sharp and her dream alive. In late 2021, Zin Zin and her family returned to Denver, and she wasted no time getting the ball rolling to open her own business, a takeout and delivery kitchen inside the Town Center at Aurora, part of the Aurora Eatery, a ghost kitchen that sprang up during the pandemic.
Professional cooking wasn't Zin Zin's original career goal. "My parents always told me I should be an engineer or a lawyer," she says, adding, "I was enrolled in school, but I had to leave my country. I was homesick, and food calmed me down whenever I was lonely or missing my family."

The dishes that comforted Zin Zin as a displaced refugee in a new country can now be ordered online. And make no mistake: The homey, soul-warming quality of her cooking isn't lost in translation when ordered for takeout or delivery. Many of Zin Zin's menu items travel well if you don't live close to the Town Center, but there are tables inside the mall if you can't wait for a crackly bite of samusas or egg rolls hot out of the fryer.

"Burmese cuisine is not cooked with recipes," Zin Zin explains. "The timing of cooking is the main thing."

She also points out that in Myanmar, meals center on what's freshest and in season at the large outdoor markets, and ingredients are prepared to soak up complex sauces that balance bitter, sweet, salty, sour and spicy flavors. Influences from India (like those samusas), China and Thailand are clear, but there are also distinctly Burmese flavors that make Zin Zin's cooking unique.
What you're eating: Balance is key, so try a noodle dish, a rice dish and something fried. If you choose one dish that's spicy, counter it with a cooling salad. The famous Burmese tea leaf salad will fit that need. An uncommon ginger salad, which Zin Zin notes is very labor-intensive, is worth ordering, too, even if the julienned raw ginger warms rather than cools.

For more Indian influence, try the keema paratha, a savory, beefy patty encased in a crispy, flaky pastry shell that Zin Zin makes from scratch, rolling layers of dough to form thin sheets that puff almost like phyllo. For traditional Burmese flavors, order the ohn no khao swè, a thick coconut curry with chicken and soft noodles served with puffy rice crackers, a hard-boiled egg and a wedge of lime. Zin Zin packs the ingredients separately so the noodles don't get soggy on their trip to your home (or a nearby craft brewery, if you want a beer with your food).

For a rich and indulgent dish, the goat curry (beef, pork belly, shrimp or chicken are also available), with generous pieces of bone-in meat swimming in a dark-brown sauce, is perfect with a side of sticky rice. Zin Zin cooks the goat for several hours so that you only need a spoon to pull succulent bites from the bones. A topping of minced chiles, shallots and herbs adds a bright note to the curry.

The food that helped someone far from her family overcome difficult times and keep memories of her homeland alive is now available to connect you with the Burmese culture Zin Zin so generously shares. She still plans to open her own restaurant, but for now you can experience the flavors and aromas at your own table.