Ma Kaing Legacy Lives on at Taw Win Thai and Burmese Restaurant

Taw Win Thai and Burmese Restaurant, one of only two eateries in Denver that serves Burmese cuisine, had been open less than a year when it suffered a crushing blow in July 2022: Owner Ma Kaing, a 47-year-old refugee and community advocate, was killed by a stray bullet as she was unloading food from her car in front of her apartment near East Colfax Avenue.

Shots sprayed out from the ironically named Freedom Park when four young men saw a car drive by that they thought contained rival gang members. The four were arrested, and two pleaded guilty. One, 23-year-old Lu Reh, went to trial; he was found guilty of first-degree murder in February, and on May 2 was sentenced in Denver District Court to life in prison without parole. The trial for the fourth accused man will start in July.

At the sentencing, a Denver prosecutor read a letter from Kaing's son, Kyaw Oo. “I remember the time, the night, every second,” Oo wrote. “I held her as she took her last breath. I promised her I would take care of her family. As her eldest, I remember that promise with every breath."

Kaing and her family fled Myanmar (the modern name for what was once called Burma) during the country's ongoing political unrest and violence and arrived in Colorado in 2007. She became active in community organizations, helped other immigrants, and opened Taw Win.
“Ma Kaing, my mother, was the foundation of that dream,” Oo said. “She was the reason we survived. The reason we thrived.”

Her American dream was cut short. But after briefly shutting down the restaurant, her family has carried on her legacy. Today, Taw Win is still open, just three blocks from the park where those deadly shots were fired.

The staffers at Taw Win seemed unaware of the court proceedings a few miles away on the day of Lu Reh's sentencing. They were busy seating and serving customers coming into the space at the end of a strip mall near East 11th Avenue and Yosemite Street in east Denver, part of a neighborhood often described the "Colfax Corridor."

The restaurant's interior is a mashup of touristy images, artifacts from Myanmar and, though a few months after the fact, holiday lights and a festive Christmas tree.

The service was friendly and the staff eagerly gave recommendations and explained the difference between Burmese and Thai cuisine. The menu, which proclaims "Royal" above the Tai Win name on the cover, features four pages of Thai dishes and two of Burmese. Early on, the Thai items were more popular, one server told me, since Thai food has been on the American scene for much longer than food from Myanmar.

These days, more adventurous diners are ordering from the Burmese pages. But there's a lot of overlap between the two culinary traditions, in name and concept, if not always in flavor.
Curry appears on both sides of the menu, but the Thai curries include versions people can order at many Thai restaurants in the area, like Panang and Massaman, with coconut milk as the base of the gravy and an array of curry spices. Burmese curry doesn't use those spices, and is made with a paste of mostly garlic, onions and ginger with chiles and paprika for color and heat, and cinnamon sticks or lemongrass for flavor variations.

I ordered Burmese Goat Curry, which was rich and chunky with meat on the bone. While wonderfully savory, it was not as spicy as I'd hoped. I'd requested medium-spicy, not the medium they'd serve most customers, but closer to the heat they'd serve family members in the back. Next time, I'll go for the full family-spicy lvel.

One Burmese dish shows up under "Salads" on the Thai side: Tea Leaf Salad, with fried garlic, peanuts, cashews, chilis and peas sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. It was crunchy, plenty spicy and a terrific choice.
I also had Mohinga, a traditional Burmese seafood soup that some diners think is too fishy. It was creamy like a stew and not too fishy — but it didn't have the chunks of tilapia I'd expected from the menu description. Still, it was chockful of slippery rice noodles and pieces of eggs that were somewhere between hard-boiled and Japanese onsen, and very satisfying.

Every dish was garnished with a sprig of mint, which added a nice accent when torn and sprinkled on the food.

The server said that when I return, I should order his two favorite dishes: Ono Kaw Swe, a coconut milk soup with fried rice noodles, and Kat Gyi Kat, stir-fried noodles with the protein of your choice.

Taw Win's chef and manager, Lin Hped, says that Ma Kaing's passion for sharing her food with the community continues today; family members, including an uncle, still own the operation.

"Her spirit came alive in every dish," Oo said of his mother in his letter to the court. And Ma Kaing's legacy lives on at Taw Win.

Taw Win Thai and Burmese Restaurant at 1120 Yosemite Street is open from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 8:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit tawwinburmesefood.com