In a modern yet inviting cabin in a corner of the Goethe Institut’s lush villa courtyard lies the Goethe Café – a restaurant whose salads, schnitzels, and pastries make up the edible component of German diplomacy in Myanmar.
The non-edible components are already well-known. Towering above the café are several palatial structures that make up the newly renovated Goethe Villa, including the colonial mansion where General Aung San once ran his opposition to the British Empire, which now serves as an art gallery and events space, and a modern office complex that includes a library, classrooms, and an auditorium. Funded by the German government, these spaces were designed to offer Myanmar people opportunities to study German language and culture.
But even though it stands in its siblings’ shadow, the café plays an equally important role. Just as Myanmar’s German residents get to know their adopted home by eating the local food, Myanmar folks hoping to visit or study in Germany can get a head start by exploring a vast and relatively affordable German menu.
During a recent visit to the Goethe Café, we went for the options that seemed most likely to set the place apart from other European restaurants in the city. We started off with the Panzanella Salad – a medley of rocket, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, feta cheese, and watermelon in a balsamic glaze. The bursts of cool freshness released by biting into chunks of tomato and watermelon cut through the weight of a muggy Yangon day almost as well as they do a searing Tuscan summer. If this city is low on dishes that deserve to be called refreshing, this salad bucks the trend.
Next came the Wiener Schnitzel – two extra-crispy pork cutlets served beside a pile of potato salad. Both were decent but were brought to life by a squeeze of lemon and touches of homemade cranberry sauce that came with the dish. A little more salt in the schnitzel’s bread batter would have balanced the tartness even better. Though noticeably not as bursting with ingredients as Yangon’s better-known schnitzel joint – Mahlzeit – Goethe’s version made up for it by being about half the price.
We finished off the meal with the Apple Turnover. The warm, slightly flaky dough filled with sweetened apple slices came with a side of vanilla ice cream, several globs of caramel sauce, and a delicate lattice of frozen honey. Aside from the joy of eating it, it also evoked some of the mouth-watering tension of Colonel Hans Landa’s strudel session with Shosanna in Inglourious Basterds.
With most dishes under K5,000 and most mains under K10,000, the Goethe Café offers a more accessible German culinary experience than its competitors. The small selection Burmese dishes on the menu also serves as a friendly invitation to new patrons who are in the early stages of their exploration of European cuisine.
Is it possible for a café to bridge distant cultures? The crowd at the Goethe Café, made up of suit-wearing Asian professionals, dapper European immigrants, and one table of jovial Burmese buddies sipping Jägermeister, would probably say it is.
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