Mar de Plata, Washington, D.C.

Last week, a realtor friend of mine took me to dinner at a place near his office. He chose Mar de Plata, an Argentine restaurant on 14th just south of P (around the corner from Whole Foods). I've walked by Mar de Plata several times, but this was my first time to go in. They have a very interesting menu with a full page of tapas and then a long page with both Spanish and Argentine classics, including a large grouping of various paellas. We sipped amontillado sherry while we perused the menu.

We started with their summer classic cold gazpacho, which turned out to be a servicable soup of finely pureed tomato and herbs with some tiny, tiny dice of cucumber, tomato, and carrot in it for texture and a good squeeze of lemon juice in it. They brought us a big basket of rustic country bread and a bowl of grated white cheese, roasted peppers, and olive oil as a tasty spread for the bread.

For our main course, he had an interesting vegetarian tower with a spicy lentil patty, longitudinally sliced and grilled yellow and zuccini squashes, broiled tomato, a little frisee, and some thin, crisp cracker things stacked on the sides. I had arroz negro con mariscos from the paella section of the menu. The arroz negro, or "black rice", was a risotto-like dish with arborio rice cooked in squid ink until it was thick and black as tar. In keeping with its paella roots, there were little pieces of diced sausage in the mix as well as a number of shrimp, some squid, some fish, and several mussels in the shell. The seafood had a bit of a doggy taste to it, a disappointment which is something I often encounter when meats have been frozen and then cooked. The arroz was quite good, though, and I enjoyed the dish. We drank the house Chilean cabernet (which the hispanic waiter kept calling a "cab-er-net") that was a little thin, but went well with the arroz.

For dessert, I had a flan which was okay but rather ordinary.