La Plaza, Washington, D.C.

Russian concert pianist Svetlana Potanina was in town tonight to play a recital at the Library of Congress. After the show, we wandered down Pennsylvania Avenue looking for a place to grab dinner, but I guess all the stuff near the Capitol is lunch only, because we ended up walking nearly to the Eastern Market Metro station before we found a strip of restaurants which were still open. We landed at La Plaza, a Salvadoran place.

I started with an horchata, a non-alcoholic beverage often thought of as "rice milk" but which is actually made of rice, almonds, vanilla, and sugar, and given the Salvadoran touch of being seasoned with cinnamon and a little ground cocoa. The waiter brought a basket of tortilla chips and a bowl of salsa, and I think their salsa is by far the best fresh salsa I've had in the D.C. area. I had thought to have just a light snack and ordered a puppusa and a tamale, but the waiter brought me the "El Cuscatleco" plate, which was a full dinner with a puppusa, the traditional pickled cabbage and hot pepper salad, a large chicken tamale, sour cream, fried yucca root, slices of fried plantain, Mexican rice, and beans. It was actually a fun dinner and I ate most of it, so I didn't complain. The puppusa, tamale, and plantain were good, the rice was okay, but I thought the yucca had a funny taste to it (probably the grease they used to fry it) and the beans were quite bland.

While La Plaza won't be a "destination" restaurant for us, it was a pleasant place while we were in the neighborhood, and they do have great salsa!