It’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Atlanta—the sky bright blue, the air nippy. It’s the sort of day when a body yearns for masala chai, or a hot buttered rum by the fire. Curiously, Clarkston’s Two Fish Myanmar Cuisine is having a run on falooda, a chilled dessert made with rose syrup, vermicelli, and vanilla ice cream.
I observe Ja Seng “Victoria” Lu—the 24-year-old daughter of the Burmese immigrant owners of this tiny counter-service restaurant in suburban DeKalb County—gingerly layering plastic cups with a treasury of wonderful and beautiful things: tapioca pearls, basil seeds, grass jelly, peanuts, raisins, sliced almonds, spongy egg pudding, bits of dried fruit that shine like rubies, giant dollops of vanilla ice cream.
