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!

El Chalán, Washington, D.C.

Had a quick dinner at El Chalán last night with my Guatemalan friend Gustavo. Why he wanted to eat at a Peruvian restaurant, I don't know, since Guatemala is in northern Central America, just below Mexico, Peru is way down in South America, and the culinary traditions are very different. But, I've been to El Chalán before and enjoyed the food, so I was okay with it. I was particularly glad to have him along last night, since our waiter spoke no English at all.

Anyway, he had the pollo al vino, a stewed chicken dish with carrot slices, peas, onions, and a light brownish sauce with white rice. I had one of the house specialities, the lomo saltado, a wonderfully tasty dish with tender, braised strips of beefsteak with potatoes (cut like short, thick fries), onion, tomatoes, peppers, peas, cilantro, all tossed together in a zesty brown sauce, and served with a large side of white rice (why does a dish with potatoes need rice?). That's all we had—like I said, it was a quick dinner. Gustavo had to run to Maryland, so it was more of a snack to tide him over til he got back to his family.