Mitsitam, Washington, D.C.

Happy New Year! What a glorious day today! The weather is warm and sunny and everyone is walking around in their shirtsleeves. One would never know it's January.

I took the subway to the Mall today so I could tour the new National Museum of the American Indian, which just opened this past September. The museum is very nice, but it wasn't at all what I was expecting. They have opted to go the route more of the very basic "educational" facility, rather than a place to warehouse a large quantity of Indian artifacts. The building is dominated by a large round performance space which becomes a central atrium for the building. Today while I was there, they had a drummer, an announcer, and two Plains-style dancers, who would do a small amount of demonstration, but then they would start pulling in members of the audience to participate. The ground floor also has an Indian foods cafe (more on that later), a nice gift shop with very expensive, high quality objets d'arts, and a theater. The second floor has another gift shop with more of the "tourist" souvenir and book type things and a long computer room for individual Indian research. The third floor has another theater and the first of the artifact exhibits, and the fourth floor has more exhibits and the big meeting rooms. A fifth half-floor houses curatorial and administrative offices.

Now, the whole museum is quite good, but I didn't find it to be particularly academic or thorough. Half the third floor and a third of the fourth floor were taken up by exhibits of the works of contemporary Indian artists, and the balance of the third floor was essentially about 21st century Native American experience. The fourth floor exhibits picked one tribe out of the various regions and had some very nice but rather cursory exhibits about those tribes. I also found the meandering cul-de-sac layout of the exhibits to be difficult, and even with the relatively small tourist volume today, it was difficult to get around and navigate the various areas. If such a time exists, it would be nice to tour the place when there are only a handful of people in the building. I was also interested to note how few Indians seemed to be working in the facility,



The highlight of the museum, though, was "Mitsitam," the native foods cafe. It, too, was crowded and awkward due to its architectural design of being one of those multi-station cafeterias so popular these days in institutional settings. A beverage station was centrally located in the space, and there were also a number of dessert items there, including some fine looking fruit tarts. Around the sides were cafeteria stations representing each of several regions: Northern Woodlands, Great Plains, Meso America, Northwest Coast, and South America. Complete menus were available in each area, and I wish I had the time and ability to sample a little bit from each section--I'll have to go back again to eat more. This plan, I think, would work better with sit-down menu service and with several sampler plate options.

I chose to start today with the Northern Woodlands section, where I had a generous serving of maple-roasted turkey breast with a cranberry-crabapple compote and a big dollop of coarsely-ground country-style mustand, and two side dishes, for $9.95. My sides turned out to be quite interesting, I asked the server to choose them for me, and he picked a wild rice salad with pumpkin seeds, pinon nuts, and watercress, and a succotash dish with big chunks of red and yellow tomatoes, lima and brown beans, white corn, onion, and chopped chives, and most interestingly, the succotash was presented cold, as a salad. I also had an Indian pudding for dessert, which, for those of you who've not cooked it before, is nothing more than a baked corn meal mush with dried currants and sweetened with honey--a simple dish, hence I was a little surprised that they charged $3.50 for it (it was tasty, though).

There were so many other things I wanted to try! Some of the more intriguing items included a cedar-planked juniper salmon, a lobster salad (also available as a sandwich), a watermelon and tomato salad, a jicama, orange, and nopales salad, and a big selection of soups. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to another trip back to the museum, if only to eat!

Roha, Washington, D.C.

There are lots and lots of restaurants and bars planning celebrations for tonight, but they are all quite pricey. I opted for a late lunch/early dinner, so I could avoid the crowds and the prix fixe prices. I'd been looking at a big apartment building on the U Street corridor, so while I was there, I stopped in at a little Ethiopean restaurant.

Roha is a very nice looking cafe just a block from a Metro stop which looked much like any other sleek, modern bar or cafe. Other than the staff and their friends, I was the only patron in the cafe at the time. Ethiopean restaurants are unique experiences, and since there are no Ethiopean restaurants in Oklahoma, I should explain a few things. First of all, there is no silverware. Food is brought out in mounds on a large tray covered with a big piece of injera, the spongy, sourdough, tortilla-like Ethiopean bread. A basket with with rolls of more injera accompanies the meal, and one eats by tearing off a piece of injera and using it to grab or scoop up food. All of the food is much like thick stews with complex, exotic spicing. Some are hot (and sometimes *very* hot!) and some are mild. The closest thing I can offer for comparison for some of you more adventuresome Oklahomans is that Ethiopean foods are reminscent, but different from, East Indian foods (no curries).

For my food, I chose the vegetarian combination. There were eight different foods arranged on my injera-covered tray, and I'll try to remember what they all were. There were two legume dishes, a misir wot, which was lentil cooked with red pepper and onion sauce, and kik alicha, which was a yellow split pea dish flavored with turmeric and ginger. Timatim fitfit provided a bit of a familiar pico de gallo flare, since it was a cold dish of chopped tomato, onions, and hot peppers with spices, lemon juice, and olive oil. There was a garlicy, spiced collard green dish called gomen (I'm not a fan of collard greens, but I ate it anyway!). One of my favorites was the tikel gomen, made of cabbage and carrots cooked in onion and garlic sauce with ginger and delicate spices, and I also liked the foslia, a green bean dish. There was a potato, onion, and turmeric dish the name of which I forget, and in the center of the tray was an item I never quite identified, but which had a nice ground meaty texture, was very hot and tasty, and reminded me of a milder version of the fiery hot Ethiopean beriberi sauce. Everything was all so good, and I'm always overwhelmed by the variety of flavors and spicings in Ethiopean foods. There was a *lot* of food in this meal, though, so I was not able to eat the entire thing. I think perhaps if I go again, I'll bring a friend and split the meal.

After my feast, I trudged back to the hotel. I think I've come down with a touch of a cold, since I'm kinda achy and have a bit of a fever. So, I've spent the evening napping and sleeping, and I'm going to watch the New Year's festivities in the comfort of my bed.

New Dynasty, Washington, D.C.

Had dinner tonight at a very interesting Chinese "fast food" place called New Dynasty with some huge steamed dumplings, a very large serving of vegetarian citrus "chicken" with rice and vegetables, and a Thai iced tea.

Table Ten, Tulsa, OK

Tony and I tried a brand new restaurant in Brookside called Table Ten for lunch today. We were anxious to try it, since it's a joint venture project of several people including the young, CIA-trained chef-owner of the French Hen. It's in a completely redone building across the street from Aberson's (the place in Tulsa where one can buy Armani clothes) and the Doran Gallery. The street-side wall is completely glass, and the decor is minimalist and practically all white. As one enters the restaurant, there is a floor to ceiling glass waterfall which serves as a partition separating the entry from the restrooms. The dining room is a large, simple room with a row of six two-tops on the far wall with a banquette all along the wall, and eight four-top tables evenly spaced in the rest of the dining room. There is also a bar with six rough-hewn wood barstools. I found the place to be potentially very noisy, since there was a painted concrete floor, essentially bare walls, and very little fabric on surfaces to deaden noise.

The menu was interesting, and seemed to have a lot of dinner-type and -price entrees, and only a couple of big salads and sandwich options for lighter appetites (and pocketbooks). We were served a very tasty basket of cheddar cheese and jalapeno biscuits, which were thin and about two inches square, accompanied by a plate of slivvers of butter (instead of the usual square or rectangular pats). We had too much to do to drink any wine, but I noticed they were serving their wines in stemless wine glasses. Interestingly, they were out of my first two entree choices, a pheasant pot pie and the chicken and cheese gnocchi (dumpling), as well as an artichoke appetizer. So, I ended up with a bowl of carrot jalapeno soup, which was very very good. It was served in a round bowl with a square-shaped rim. There was a good, slightly sweet carrot flavor and the jalapeno was present but not devastatingly hot. I also tasted creme fraiche, nutmeg, and white pepper.

For my main course, I had the two cherry bourbon lamb shanks, which were presented on a bed of succotash and garnished with a few leaves of flash-fried spinach. The lamb had a fine flavor and was good, but I wasn't blown away by it. There was a distinct bourbon flavor to the glaze, and I found several dried cherries. I think perchance if the lamb had been braised a touch longer, it would have had a more impressive tenderness to it. I liked the succotash. It was a bit lima bean-heavy, but there was also corn, red bell pepper, and onion in the mix. Tony had the same entree, but opted for a caesar salad instead of soup. It appeared to be nicely made and I saw distinct shavings of actual parmesan cheese, and Tony reported the dressing to be freshly made and with a touch of mustard taste.

We wanted dessert, but their only three options--a turtle cheesecake, a chocolate sundae, and strawberries and cream--didn't ring our bell, so we did without. Tony liked the place a lot and says it has potential, but I wasn't quite so impressed. For a $64 lunch for two that did not include alcohol or dessert, I expect to be more awed.

Shiloh's, Tulsa, OK

For dinner tonight, we went to Shiloh's, where I had a country pan fried steak with gravy, mashed potatoes, fried okra, a green salad with roquefort dressing, and a huge piece of coconut meringue pie. Tony had the same salad and okra. plus fried potatoes and the pot roast and gravy. Shiloh's is an interesting family-place, a notch above a diner, but with the same "blue plate special" type foods. One of their specialty items is a nicely spongey fresh-baked dinner roll, served with a delicious strawberry rhubarb compote in one of those condiment squirt bottles. Tony ordered a second round of rolls for us, but I made him wait til we'd eaten our dinners before he ate his. So, with great relish, he split open his roll, buttered it, then squirted catsup all over it, thinking it was the strawberry-rhubarb stuff. I don't think he likes catsup sandwiches!

Outback Steakhouse, Tulsa, OK

Tony and I did dinner at Outback steakhouse tonight. I wanted lamb, but for some reason I ordered the prime rib instead. It was a large piece of essentially flavorless meat, but I fixed that problem with large quantities of horseradish. Shoulda had a steak. Or the lamb. Tony did the baby back ribs. Afterwards, we went out to Rhema Bible College to walk around and look at their Christmas lights. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures, but I only got one....I think the camera batteries are dying. Then we went to the best espresso bar in Tulsa, Nordaggio's, to have espressi macciati.