Monday, September 3, 2012

Rasika (Washington D.C.)

I hadn't been to Washington D.C. in a long time... It was full of surprises. Ragweed, random countdown clocks at every street corner, and bands of socioeconomic disparity... and a certain dish from Rasika.

We chose to eat at Rasika first because this Indian restaurant was near the top of just about every restaurant list that we checked.


Their decor was beautiful and immediately transported me to a country that I've never visited.


They even had this interesting piece in the back of the room. The host probably thought that I was a pervert, but I was actually examining the unusual length of the left arm.


But forget all the crazy paintings. We came here for the palak chaat, a crispy spinach salad. When I ate it, I had a WTF WOW moment. I don't get those very often anymore.

The spinach was unbelievably crispy yet moist. The brown stuff stuck on it had a certain umami taste, almost like the crust that you get when you pan fry meat, which was strange because I'm pretty sure that the dish was vegetarian. The salad bits with red onion, tomato, and some kind of a sweet salsa went perfectly with the light yogurt and added another layer of complexity to the dish. The serving size was generous and very well portioned. If I had eaten any more, I would have had a sensory overload, and if I had any less I would have been very sad indeed.



We had a halibut curry and a lamb masala. They were good, but nothing to call home about.


The naan was good. It was pretty.


We got this date and toffee pudding to split because our wine was rather sweet, and the other dessert choices were all *very* sweet. The pudding was delicious, but it was more like a moist ginger spice cake. I don't know what part of this was supposed to be a pudding.

All in all I was a little worried about this place being one of the best in Washington D.C. It did make me wonder about the prospects for the rest of the trip, but the spinach salad was absolutely out of this world. I hoped to find many more such treasures on my trip!

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