 | | | | | | | | | | BARS & CLUBS |  | Brickskeller: 1,000 bottles of beer on the wall -- give or take.
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| |  |  No Visa Required
By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, April 14, 2002
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| |  A meal at Han Sung Oak begins with a fleet of little dishes. (Photo by Olivia Boinet for The Washington Post) | In just the past few months, I've had the pleasure of eating with my hands in Ethiopia, knocking back some heady beers in Belgium and contemplating the ritual beauty of an eight-course dinner in Japan. Not once did I have to pack a suitcase, pull out a passport or navigate a strange airport terminal. Jet lag? It never occurred to me. My world tour started and concluded in my own back yard. That's one of the great things about living in the Washington area. Not far from any of our homes, there are restaurants offering the chance to explore another culture without committing to a lengthy vacation. For no more time than it takes to eat lunch or dinner, we can be transported delicious distances. Allow me to point out, for instance, Taberna del Alabardero, Washington's grand Spanish restaurant, where baby eels sizzle in a haze of garlic, and English is practically a foreign language. Or the stone path and heavy wood door leading to tiny Makoto, as simple and tranquil a prelude to dinner as you might find at a beloved neighborhood eatery in Japan. As I checked out contenders for the following mini-guide, authenticity was on my mind…and I found it, though not always down to the last detail. Sometimes that sense of the genuine announced itself in big, bold letters; other times it surfaced quietly, in a style of service or even a single dish. I also found that a little break from tradition here and there isn't necessarily a drawback. The kindly assistance at Han Sung Oak, for example, is hardly typical of the abrupt Korean restaurants of my acquaintance, but welcome nonetheless, and the cooking is as colorful and varied as any I've encountered. The point is, each of these 10 places, in its own way, opens our eyes to a world of possibilities. Afghan Restaurant
The view from the windows is mostly highway, and the service can be matter-of-fact. Yet this big restaurant – which almost triples in size when its folding doors are parted, revealing a satellite dining room – manages to conjure Afghanistan with faraway music on the sound system and food that speaks in a nurturing accent. The flat bread alone warrants a visit. A ubiquitous sight in dining rooms and shop windows in Kabul, here in Alexandria it shows up on seemingly every table: flat ovals more than a foot long, crisp and chewy after doing some time in a clay oven. At lunch, bargain hunters can round it out with a meal composed from a dozen or so chafing dishes on a buffet, all for $6.95. Picture fried eggplant, chicken curry and basmati rice threaded with carrots and sweet with plump raisins. At any time, there are a la carte kebabs of deftly seasoned chicken, beef and ground lamb (my favorite); luscious crescent-shaped dumplings stuffed with scallions and topped with a zesty yogurt and meat sauce; and vegetarian pleasures extending to fried spinach and – one last Afghan touch – sauteed pumpkin.
2700 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Alexandria (703/548-0022). Entrees: $6.95 to $13.95. Bacchus
No one knows appetizers better than the Lebanese, who snack on them at breakfast and build entire buffets around them later in the day. And no local restaurants lavish more attention on mezze, as the spread is called, than Bacchus's two venerable outposts of Lebanese cooking, whose appetizer lists stretch to some 50 choices. Such exquisite decisions! Will it be cabbage stuffed with rice, mint, onions and parsley, or some aged cheeses tossed with sumac, tomatoes and fiery paprika? Fried smelts with tahini dip, or smoke-singed chicken drumsticks destined for a dunk in garlic paste? I want them all. It would be easy to fill up on hors d'oeuvres, but the Washington site requires diners to order a main course at lunch. That turns out to be a good thing; it would be a shame to miss out on Bacchus Delight, a generous plate of fish and chicken marinated with garlic and lemon, nicely grilled and arranged on fluffy, almond-strewn rice. The Bethesda branch is larger and fancier, with the advantage of an outdoor courtyard in good weather, yet the original downtown restaurant, cozy beneath its tentlike ceiling and watched over by a gracious staff, remains my favorite. Both, thankfully, serve falafel of distinction and lemonade that tastes freshly made, because it is.
1827 Jefferson Pl. NW (202-785-0734); 7945 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda (301/657-1722). Entrees: lunch $8.75 to $11.75, dinner $13.25 to $16.95. | |  A bowl of shrimp chowder at the Peruvian Costa Verde. (Photo by Olivia Boinet for The Washington Post) | Costa Verde
One of Peru's claims to fame is its potato dishes. You can see why here, where the appetizers include sliced, boiled potatoes cloaked in a velvety yellow cheese sauce, and mashed potatoes wrapped around ground beef to form a ball and then deep-fried to a golden turn. The rest of the menu is roughly divided between turf and surf, just like you'd see in Lima. I prefer the surf side: Whole fried trout is delicious, as are the seviche (colorful with sweet potatoes) and the shrimp chowder. To wash a meal back, do as the Peruvians do and try a terrific pisco sour, fueled with potent Peruvian brandy. The open room isn't much to look at, though frilly curtains help dress the place up, and weekend nights are enlivened by a musician. Does it matter that he opens with "The Girl From Ipanema" instead of an Andean folk song? Not really. Atmosphere isn't the reason we're here. "This food is made with love," a friend says, summing up our dinner – and beating me to the last of the fried yuca.
946 N. Jackson St., Arlington (703-522-6976). Entrees: $8.95 to $15.95. Dukem
You don't get forks or knives; as is typical of Ethiopian dining, the food at Dukem is eaten with fingers and pieces of injera, the slightly sour crepe that also stands in for a plate. If you're a novice, be advised: No staff member I encountered at this corner dining room spoke much English, if any. But pointing and enlisting the help of native Ethiopian customers, who seem to treat this as a community center as much as a place to eat, can land you some pleasant memories to take back home. One signature is kitfo, a mound of raw ground beef blended with house-made cottage cheese, herbed butter and hot red pepper. Imagine steak tartare mixed with fire. You don't have to be a carnivore to eat well, though. Follow the lead of seemingly every other table and request the vegetable combination: Out comes a floppy round of injera, dolloped with a variety of earth-toned dishes, from chopped greens and yellow lentils to a tomato salad sparked with jalapenos. Afternoon soap operas and CNN on TV yield to live Ethiopian music onstage Thursday through Monday evenings.
1116 U St. NW (202/667-8735). Entrees: $7.25 to $13.95. Han Sung Oak
The aroma of grilled meat, garlic and chilies greets diners right at the door. But the welcome to this handsome restaurant continues with the blue-uniformed waitresses, as pleasant and engaging as I've ever met in a local Korean restaurant. The women are quick to smile, eager to steer you to dishes you might like and happy to demonstrate the tabletop grills almost everyone ends up using. Squid, tripe, pork, beef short ribs – the flames take on those and other marinated ingredients, which are then served with steamed rice and crisp lettuce leaves for bundling. To begin, though, there are fried dumplings, meat-stuffed green peppers and a savory "pancake" veined with red and green bell peppers, bites of squid and oysters. As is customary in Korean restaurants, half a dozen or so little taste treats, or panchan, precede the main event, crowding the large table; each snack dish is different and delicious, be it chewy marinated soybeans, cucumber salad, strings of lightly pickled radish or the chili-stoked cabbage known as kimchi, so prized a dish that it merits a museum back home in Seoul.
6341 Columbia Pike, Falls Church (703/642-0808). Entrees: lunch $6.95 to $25, dinner $7.95 to $25. Le Mannequin Pis
One minute, he's introducing diners to one of the 40 or so beers he stocks from his homeland. The next, chef-owner Bernard Dehaene is showing guests how to eat mussels the Belgian way, using an empty shell as pincers to retrieve the "meat" from the others. Steamed mussels, served by the kilo in double-decker pots, are the star attraction here, and the possibilities run from a simple partnership with wine and herbs to a more elaborate marriage with goat cheese, bacon and leeks. If you thought a restaurant couldn't get any more Belgian than that, it can: There are cheese croquettes served with mustardy pickled vegetables, french fries (though Dehaene urges us not to call them "french" – he prefers "pommes frites") with mayonnaise, and a Flemish-style beef stew bolstered with dark beer. The snug room is pretty with willow branches decorating its windows and modern art on the walls. The title? Le Mannequin Pis takes its name from the famous fountain near the Grand Place in Brussels.
18064 Georgia Ave., Olney (301/570-4800). Dinner entrees: $13 to $18.50. | |  Dinner is served at Makoto. (Photo by Olivia Boinet for The Washington Post) | Makoto
Wear clean socks. That's my advice to anyone interested in a meal at this most Japanese of Washington's restaurants, whose patrons are asked to shed their shoes at the door before entering the spare, narrow, low-ceilinged dining room. No one just drops by Makoto; with only 28 seats, including a small sushi bar, reservations are essential. Looking around, and eavesdropping, I often think half the diplomatic corps must come here to hoist chopsticks and drink sake. I imagine such clients feel at home perched on the wooden boxes that serve as chairs, feasting on pristine sushi, flounder bound in cherry leaf, or soft-shell crab crunchy in a coat of rice cracker crumbs and garnished with leek flower stems. This is all beautiful food, right down to the sparkling grape ice that signals the end of the $45 tasting menu. A seat at the counter, overlooking the kitchen and three chefs, provides one of the most engaging cooking shows you're likely to tune in to.
4822 MacArthur Blvd. NW (202/298-6866). Fixed-price menu: lunch $17, dinner $45. New Fortune
Awash in red carpet and illuminated with chandeliers, this Chinese feeding hall is about as intimate as Tiananmen Square. With 450 seats and a stage for banquets, it's built on the scale of a country with more than a billion citizens. A diner could visit every day for half a year and still not sample every dish on the epic menu. Seafood dishes, including "salt and pepper" squid and scallops, tend to be the kitchen's strong suit. At lunch, when dim sum is served, New Fortune feels like a trip to Canton. A flotilla of food carts crisscross the expanse, their bow-tied attendants hawking everything from appetizer-size plates of roast duck to rice gruel, from spidery deep-fried taro cakes to spareribs draped in black bean sauce. Kids love the show, and parents appreciate the speedy service. Late dinner hours (till 1 a.m. weekdays, 2 a.m. weekends) and modest tabs make up for the occasional clinker from the kitchen.
16515 S. Frederick Ave., Gaithersburg (301/926-8828). Entrees: $7.50 to $35. Taberna del Alabardero
"Made in Madrid." This grandly formal restaurant doesn't actually say that anywhere, but it could; what isn't white lace or elegant tapestries is rich wood or gleaming brass. Waiters in tuxedos see to the needs of diners who look as if they're accustomed to two-hour lunches. Here's what they might be eating: caramelized baby octopus atop squid-ink-stained rice, sweetbreads spilling out of a hat of puff pastry, lamb stew flavored with sweet peppers, a bed of rice scattered with fresh seafood and served with a wash of tomato sauce. It's all very subtle, and satisfying, cooking. The main room looks onto a busy sidewalk, another offers a peek into the kitchen. If I'm short on time, I like to lunch at the handsome tapas bar. A few folds of rosy serrano ham – carved from a haunch on a counter – with some nutty manchego cheese and a little plate of vinegar-cured anchovies (oh, let's throw in a glass of sherry, too) beg only for a siesta afterward.
1776 I St. NW (202/429-2200). Entrees: lunch $18 to $22, dinner $24 to $32.50. Tavira
Portuguese cooking is a rare commodity around here, and even more rarely is it presented with such flair. Coarse and spicy red sausage shows up at the table on a miniature clay grill, the flames still dancing. Fresh clams mingle with wine, onions and chorizo in a closed copper bowl; opened at the table, the vessel releases an aromatic cloud of steam. If you've given up on chicken because so much of it is so boring, try it at Tavira, where it's massaged with a fiery pepper sauce and grilled until it is both crisp and succulent. A thick slab of salt cod – a staple of the Portuguese kitchen – is emboldened by garlic, and bronzini, an occasional fish special, is expertly filleted before your eyes and lavished with sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and olive oil. A bottle of something red from Portugal makes the perfect companion to this food. Yes, you're sitting in the basement of a suburban bank building, but there's a handsome little bar and a warren of cheerful yellow dining rooms – plus a fireplace – to wrap you in modest comfort. And even on a busy Saturday night, the staff does its best to welcome you. By meal's end, you'll feel closer to Lisbon than to Chevy Chase.
8401 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase (301/652-8684). Entrees: lunch $6.25 to $13.95, dinner $15.95 to $22.95. Tom Sietsema is The Post's food critic. | | |
