The window into different cultures, is sometimes, literally, a window.

Located in a small corner of Al Khail Mall, in Al Qouz area of Dubai, is the chef’s window of the “Golden Myanmar” Restaurant. Through it, the three-year-old restaurant has been introducing its unique cuisine; a combination of Indian, Thai and Chinese dishes represent the Burmese Myanmar’s culture. “We would add a herb or a vegetable or some group of ingredients to make it a Myanmar dish,” says Minn Thu Soe, from Myanmar and the owner of the restaurant. “I wanted to introduce our culture through our food, but still it is taking time as people are not familiar with our kind of food as they are used to just Chinese, just Indian and just Thai dishes, not a combination and reinvention of them,” says the 36 year old businessman.

Living in the UAE since 2000, it is home for Mr Minn; two of his children were born here. With a background in hotel management and services, Mr Minn, along with an engineer friend who is also from Myanmar, saved up money and set up the restaurant at a cost of 650,000 Dhs. “UAE is the place of opportunities, and my dream was to leave some mark, and since I love food, I decided to open this restaurant,” he says with a big smile.

Serving a combination of noodle, rice, biryani, tofu, chicken, meat, vegetable and fish dishes, their most popular are “Kyay Oe Si Chet,” a special vermicelli soup, and various dishes that look familiar but have a unique taste and scent. “We import fish all the way from home, we call it rohu, to give our customer the real taste of Myanmar,” he says. There is always a “main salad” as part of any meal, and it is packed with vegetables and some kind of fish, meat, pork, or chicken addition.

So far, most of his customers are from South Asia, and over the past three years, he estimates about 100 Arabs who have tried his cuisine. “I hope one day to expand it across UAE, but it will take time,” he says.

With official figures hard to get by, there are an estimated 10,000 Myanmar nationals working in the UAE, most of them in the hospitality sector like food and lifestyle, with some working in construction as engineers. In 2000, Mr Minn remembers that there were just 100 Myanmar nationals living in UAE, mostly in Dubai. “But more and more are coming here as everyone wants to live here. Dubai is very famous back home,” he says.

As a way of reviving the “golden” image of what Mr Minn calls the “golden land” of precious gems like rubies, he decided to call his restaurant “Golden” and put a logo of the Mandalay Palace, located in Mandalay, Myanmar. It is the last royal palace of the last Burmese monarchy, built between 1857 and 1859.

Besides its unique food and culture, Burmese use a unique ancient script, a Brahmi style syllabic alphabet, adopted from the Mon script in the 12th century CE. The Brahmi script is one of the most important writing systems in the world and is the ancestor to hundreds of scripts found in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Check out this link to see this beautiful script.

“What makes us even more special, we have no last name, no family name per say,” explains Mr Minn, who says his name is defined by astrology and by the exact day, time he was born. “I am Thursday, Friday, Sat,” translating his name Minn Thu Soe.

Whenever a child is born in Myanamr, the family takes him or her to the astrologer who writes up the infant’s entire life, character and events into a tiny booklet and hands it over to the parents.

Known as “Zar Tar,” the record or booklet is a stack of palm leaves smeared with residual oil and folded into a handy packet. It is an old-fashioned birth certificate, declaring the name of newly born baby, usually prepared by monks and astrologers, by going through a complex calculation of the location of stars, sun, and the date and time of the birth of new baby. To find out more on this ancient tradition of naming, read more here.

The naming system has been brought up to the 21th century, with mobile applications dedicated to this. One such application is called “Mahabote,” where you put your date of birth and it tells you your personality and fortune. “Based on the number that defines your birthday, you can read about your personality and what to expect in life,” says Mr Minn. “I am number one, where I am told my life will be bumpy, ups and downs, and that I have to be patient and success will come my way.”

Even though his two children were born here, he asked his parents to get the astrologer back home to carve out their Zar Tar records. “I like to keep up traditions. We are losing our identities and our traditions everyday. We need to keep what makes us unique alive,” he says. And with a smile, he says: “And traditional food is one of the best ways to keep a tradition and culture alive.”