Aatish on the Hill, Washington, D.C.

Had an interesting dinner last night on Capitol Hill. We went to Aatish on the Hill, a Pakistani cafe featuring foods cooked in a tandoor. A tandoor is a special type of clay oven used for the equivalent of barbecuing for many types of Indian and Pakistani foods. I've always found tandoori cuisine amusing, since the meats are marinated in yogurt and spices before cooking, and they always come out of the tandoor with a characteristic bright red color.

As soon as we sat down, I was offered a masala chai, which was a black Indian tea (tasted a bit like assam) with an assortment of spices, including cardamom, cloves, pepper, nutmeg, ginger, and I think just a hint of saffron. An assistant brought us some papad (those thin, crisp, torilla-sized wafers made of dal or lentil flour and then deep fried) and a couple of sauces, one the usual mint chutney, and the other an unusual chutney that reminded me of beans and cooked tomatoes.

We decided to eat from the tandoori selections, so we started with a lamb botti kebab and a chicken tikki for appetizers, accompanied by a bowl of raita (yogurt with cucumber and mint), then for the main course, we had a big lamb sheekh kebab and a shrimp kebab tandoori, plus a large dish of spinach and homemade cheese called palak paneer. The palak paneer was good and very traditional for northern Indian cuisine (and Pakistan is in the northwest part of the Indian subcontinent), but I've always prefered the southern version called saag paneer, which is basically the same dish with cream and yogurt in it (I know, the spicings are different, but I'm trying to express a broad, general concept). I didn't much care for the tandoori shrimp. They had been rolled in a very thick layer of spices heavy with paprika to the point that it almost felt breaded in the mouth. On the other hand, the lamb was delicious. The chunks were tender and flavorful, and the tomato, peppers, and onion used on the skewers between the meat while it cooked were included on the serving plate. I love how the meaty pieces of onion were sweet and tender and had taken on a bit of the smokiness of the tandoor.

The main course dishes came with decoratively garnished saffron rice, but I told the waiter not to bring me any. I'm trying to reduce my carbohydrate intake and I'm avoiding rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, etc. That's also why I didn't order any naan or other breads. The waiter didn't help my cause, though, cause after we were totally stuffed from eating dinner, he brought us a big bowl of kheer (rice pudding) on the house. So, in order to be polite, I had to eat my half. It was very good kheer, too, since it was thick and full of spices (I don't like the runny kind or the kind made from vermicelli you see at some other restaurants).