Remember when raw sushi was only sold in restaurants instead of the grocery store cooler case? America has come a long way towards embracing unusual and international foods—Applebee’s is putting sriracha on things?!—but it’s not far enough for some diners. You know who you are—the offal junkies, the Tony Bourdain/Andrew Zimmern wannabes, the weirdos who eat the heads off their whole shrimps. (Don’t worry, we’re right there with you.) This week’s list is all about learning to love the most interesting thing on the menu. Below are our picks for horizon-expanding eating in and around the District. As always, let us know your favorite spots in the comments.
Natto (photo by Yoppy).
IZAKAYA SEKI: Izakaya Seki specializes in Japanese drinking snacks, and it’s easy to build a fascinating meal out of these tiny treasures. Don’t come expecting the usual California roll fare; there’s no sushi here, though there is tuna and scallop sashimi for the raw fish fans. Get down on some of the more unusual offerings, including house-cured mackerel, a small oily fish that we typically reserve for cat food in the U.S., or akimo, delicate steamed monkfish liver. One of my favorite dishes is the beef tongue with yuzu miso—the tender meat and citrus-y sauce are pleasant enough to win over even squeamish dining companions. However, even I haven’t been able to bring myself to order the natto, a delicacy of slimy, odoriferous fermented soy beans. —Alicia Mazzara
Izakaya Seki is located at 1117 V Street NW.
MARI VANNA: If you’re just starting out on your quest to become an adventurous eater and don’t want to venture into rodent and bodily fluid territory just yet, Mari Vanna is the place for you. There’s plenty on the menu that’s familiar-sounding to American eaters but prepared in ways most of us aren’t used to. Let’s start with the bread basket. Skip the butter and go for the salo plate instead. “Salo” is lightly cured pork fatback, which, when prepared correctly, is spreadable. The plate contains an assortment including thin strips of lard rimmed with black pepper and marbled with garlic.
Next, give in to temptation and order the oddly glamorous-sounding “herring under a fur coat.” You’ll get a layered “salad” that combines chopped herring (which, contrary to popular belief, tastes pleasant and a little sweet), roasted and diced beets, carrots, and potatoes, plus a generous helping of mayonnaise mixed with chopped hard-boiled eggs. (That’s the “fur coat” part.) It’s a Russian favorite for New Year’s Eve. And don’t skip the meat jello: order the kholodets (aspic), whose name plays on the Russian word for “cold.” Mari Vanna makes theirs with a mixture of chicken and beef suspended in gelatinized beef stock. It’s traditionally served with horseradish.—Jenny Holm
Mari Vanna is located at 1141 Connecticut Avenue NW.
MINIBAR: Being an intrepid eater isn’t just about eating unusual foods; it’s also about being comfortable relinquishing control. Can’t stand not knowing what you’re about to eat? Then a chef’s tasting menu or omakase probably isn’t for you. Any chef’s tasting is bound to hold a few surprises, but perhaps none more so than at minibar, José Andrés’ 12 seat culinary laboratory. Equal parts entertainment and science experiment, the ever-changing 25-course menu is sure to challenge diners’ notions about what a meal should be. For instance: if it looks like a marshmallow Peep but tastes foie gras … am I still eating dessert? An evening at the culinary circus does not come cheap (the going rate is currently $250 a head), but it’s worth it for folks who want a truly mind-expanding meal. —Alicia Mazzara
Minibar is located at 855 E Street NW.
Is that a bug in my taco? (Photo by available_photons)
OYAMEL: Most of the Mexican dishes at Oyamel are pretty accessible, but read carefully and you’ll spot a few out-there items. Namely, the chapulines or grasshopper tacos with guacamole. (Just don’t look too closely when you take that first bite.) Other unusual offerings include cactus paddles, served in a salad or grilled, and menudo—the piquant, hangover-busting tripe soup, not the boy band—makes an appearance on the brunch menu. —Alicia Mazzara
Oyamel is located at 401 7th Street NW.
NHU LAN SANDWICH: Did you know that head cheese isn’t really cheese? Of course you did, discerning reader. Head cheese is charcuterie made from whole hog heads rendered for many hours. While the texture of head cheese may be unfamiliar, the taste is savory and not too crazy. In fact, it’s offal-ly good. So if you’re going to enjoy a Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwich, go whole hog. Head out to the Eden Center in Falls Church. There are over 100 Vietnamese food businesses tucked into this strip mall, including Nhu Lan Sandwich. How’s this for adventurous? Enter through the doors directly beneath the clock tower. Go for the #1: mixed meats, ham, páte, head cheese, peppers, and “secret butter.” —Josh Kramer
Nhu Lan Sandwich is located at 6763 Wilson Blvd. #14 in Falls Church, Va.
PANDA GOURMET: The lengthy Sichuan menu at Panda Gourmet is full of rewarding choices, including many options for adventurous eaters. Let’s be clear: You don’t trek to this hole in the wall Chinese gem to eat General Tso’s chicken and crab rangoon. Start with the cold dan dan noodles, a wonderfully spicy and savory dish made with a peanut sauce and topped with minced pork. Then, move to something more wild like the cumin beef Chinese burger, or the wonderfully hot-and-sour Qishan Noodle, a soup made with hints of cinnamon and spices. Really curious diners can even order frog or a whole fish head.—Travis Mitchell
Panda Gourmet is located at 2700 New York Avenue NE.
THE PARTISAN: Get ready to eat for true nose-to-tail dining at The Partisan. The restaurant menu spares no protein, but pork—in every form imaginable—features especially prominently. Kick off the meal with a K.F.P. or Korean-fried pig foot with Buffalo sauce, a dish that would probably make Colonel Sanders proud uncomfortable. The multi-page charcuterie menu is also a parade of fiddly bits, from head to belly to liver. And if you can get a group four to six of willing participants, The Partisan will put together a pork feast featuring a whole roasted pig head, bone marrow, and pig ear salad. —Alicia Mazzara
The Partisan is located at 709 D Street NW.
SOME RANDO’S PLACE: Normally the least adventurous thing about eating out is your fellow dining companions. You know ahead of time if it’ll be an easygoing meal with a dear friend or a trial to get through with a picky coworker. Social dining platforms flip that around, allowing people to break bread at stranger’s houses with other curiosity seekers.The whole point is that you don’t know who or, exactly what, you’ll find at the meals put on by home chefs and connoisseurs. —Rachel Sadon
Bookalokal, Feastly, and EatWith are among the platforms available in D.C.
THE PIG: For fellow hopeless, starry-eyed lovers of pork and pork products, The Pig stands out like a beacon of hope for adventurous porcine eating. Its chef, Michael Bonk, does some pretty magical things with the humble hog, and as a nose-to-tail restaurant they don’t shy away from serving the fiddly bits. On the tamer end are items like blood sausage (deeply delicious and not crumbly as it can be sometimes) and scrapple, which their website describes as “all the odd bits”. Go a bit deeper though and on occasion you’ll find crispy fried pigs ears, blood pudding, head cheese, chicken-fried face bacon (no joke, one of the best things I’ve ever eaten) and sundaes with blood-enhanced chocolate sauce. The Pig also frequently offers special meals dedicated to different parts of the hog, which in the past has included a whole pig head as well as offal-focused offerings, so the opportunity to indulge your inner Anthony Bourdain should arise often.—Jacob Dean
The Pig is located at 1320 14th Street NW.
Raw kitfo. (Photo by Charles Haynes.)
QUEEN OF SHEBA: Fans of Ethiopian food are likely acquainted with kitfo, a dish of marinated minced beef that is often served raw. If regular kitfo is old news to you, stop by Queen of Sheba for some interesting variations, including the special kitfo made with collards and cottage cheese. There are other unusual dishes as well, like the peanut butter fitfit: tomatoes, onions, jalapeno and injera tossed with a peanut butter sauce. The most audacious of dish though is the dulet, a mixture of spiced lamb tripe, liver, raw beef, onions, garlic, and jalapeños. Plan on popping a mint after that one. —Alicia Mazzara
Queen of Sheba is located at 1503 9th Street NW.
SICHUAN JIN RIVER: Once you get past the gloopy raft of Americanized dishes at many Chinese restaurants, things start getting interesting. And while many of the Chinese restaurants dotting Rockville Pike will meet an adventurous diner’s needs, Sichuan Jin River has a more extensive menu than most. Ignore the kung pao chicken and go for the Sichuan specialities, redolent with chili oil and tingling Sichuan peppercorns. The mapo tofu or dan dan noodles are a good place to start if you’ve never experienced the tongue-numbing sensation of Sichuan cuisine, or go bold with intestines three ways, garlicky pig feet, and iron-rich cakes of duck blood. If you just want to dip your toe in the water, consider ordering one of the cold appetizers for a small portion of poultry feet (chicken and duck are both options), tripe, tendon, or pig ear. —Alicia Mazzara
Sichuan Jin River is located at 410 Hungerford Dr in Rockville, Md.
THIP KHAO: Laotian food is pretty unusual around these parts, but media darling Thip Khao has an entire second menu devoted to firey, odd, and offal delights. Their “Go to the Jungle” menu is a roster of lesser eaten proteins, from crispy snakehead fish to chicken hearts to pork blood, formed into sausages or served in a little congealed cake. And, as of last week, they were serving tree ant eggs (as in bug larvae) prepared three different ways. —Alicia Mazzara
Thip Khao is located at 3462 14th Street NW.
