Tiyo Shibabaw

The Climb

Dining-room craft shaped the early discipline. As general manager at Burma Superstar until 2016, Tiyo Shibabaw worked inside the timing of service, the pace of a full room, and the adjustments that carry hospitality from greeting to check drop. That front-of-house training sharpened attention to how guests read flavor alongside welcome, tempo, and atmosphere. Menu authorship at Teni East Kitchen carries that service logic into the kitchen. As chef/owner since 2016, Tiyo Shibabaw works plate by plate, with hospitality still central but expressed through fried shallot crunch, lemongrass fragrance, fresh greens, and the measured brightness of California-inflected Burmese cooking.

Today

Burmese food with a California spin is the restaurant’s working brief. In Tiyo Shibabaw’s menu, traditional Burmese flavors meet modern twists and contemporary Bay Area influences, especially in the kale version of Burmese tea leaf salad. Fermented tea leaves, nuts, and fried shallots remain the center of the dish; baby kale shifts the texture and freshness without moving the salad away from its core. The tea leaf salad is treated as both snack lineage and adaptation. “It’s kind of like an energy burst because it does have caffeine. But here we add a little twist, and it goes well with the baby kale.” The coconut shrimp curry shows the Thai-leaning California side of the kitchen. Cited as an example of that style, the dish is built with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, Thai chilies, shallots, and fresh butterflied shrimp. The emphasis is not weight; it is aromatic clarity, seafood, and a lighter curry structure. Greens and texture give the menu its recognizable shape. The pea shoot salad, alongside the tea leaf kale salad and coconut shrimp curry, places Burmese foundations next to Southeast Asian aromatics and the Bay Area preference for brightness. The style depends on fragrance, freshness, crunch, and heat held in balance.

In Their Words “It’s eaten as a roadside snack with tea. It’s kind of like an energy burst because it does have caffeine. But here we add a little twist, and it goes well with the baby kale.”

Recognition

Recognition from Berkeleyside identified the pea shoot salad as Teni East Kitchen’s signature dish. The public record around Teni East Kitchen tracks a shift from dining-room leadership to menu construction. Since 2016, Tiyo Shibabaw’s role as chef/owner has centered Burmese flavors, California freshness, and Southeast Asian aromatics in a form that is direct, bright, and legible on the plate.