available here: a roll of rice stuffed with soy-glazed beef, braised pork belly or chicken. Some grilled dishes are ordinary, and piles of empty dishes point to distracted servers. But right now, Kushi’s crowd shows that the place has a lock on the hip and the international: I overhear as much Japanese as English. // 465 K St. NW; 202-682-3123; www. eatkushi.tumblr.com. Open: lunch and dinner daily. All major credit cards. Entree prices: lunch $8 to $14, dinner (tapas portions) $3.50 to $35, sushi $20 to $40. Sound check: 77 decibels.


intensive Venezuelan holiday staples that bundle pork, beef and chicken with almonds, raisins and olives in packets of masa and banana leaves. (Show up early; when his batch of 180 hallacas is gone, Claros cautions, he’s fi nished for the season.) Any time of year, try to reserve one of a mere 32 seats in the cozy, low-ceilinged dining room, the corner of which reveals another of the chef ’s passions: bongos, congas and maracas. // 300 W. Broad St., Falls Church; 703-533-0076; www. lacaraquena.com. Open: lunch and


Steamed sliced potatoes in a curtain of spicy yellow cheese sauce tends to reel me in, as does garlicky fried trout with yuca, although dishes such as the winy shredded fl ank steak, ropa vieja, demonstrate a kitchen at home with Cuban fl avors, too. Leave it to Perez to show off the classic in a crisp cone of fried green plantains. Flaws? The black beans taste one-note, and you might be in the middle of your starter when your entree appears. (Slow down, kids, but keep smiling.) Save space for the caramel-fi lled anise cookies (or a scoop of something new: ice cream tinted yellow with the tropical fruit lucuma, and churned right here. // 765-B Rockville Pike, Rockville; 301-424-8066. No Web site. Open: lunch and dinner daily, Sunday breakfast. Master Card and Visa. Entree prices: lunch and dinner $11.95 to $17.95, breakfast $5.25 to $7.95. Sound check: 75 decibels.


Clay Miller is the inventive man behind the menu at Trummer’s on Main; at right, his mulligatawny soup, which whispers of curry and vermouth and sports a sail made of apple slice. Review on Page 44.


★★ LA CARAQUEÑA From one small kitchen come the big fl avors of two countries. Bolivia is represented by a delicate peanut soup and salteñas, braided turnovers that hide a stew of beef, carrots and potatoes. Venezuela is honored with arepas, fl at white corn cakes fi lled with a choice of a dozen toppings, my favorite being garlicky sliced steak with cilantro and onions. Chef Raul Claros, 29, who was born the son of restaurateurs in Venezuela and moved to Bolivia as a teenager, also serves some of the area’s best fried yuca: crisp outside, moist within and best dunked in a creamy garlic-cumin dip. For Christmas, Claros makes hallacas, the labor-


dinner Wednesday through Monday. All major credit cards. Entree prices: $7 to $20. Sound check: 68 decibels.


★★ LA LIMEÑA Good news for Latin American-loving chow hounds who like a nip with their meals: Owner Emma Perez added some fuel to her fi re with a liquor license this past spring, which raises the possibility of a pisco sour or mojito with her citrus-shocked ceviche or pork- and-peanut-fi lled tamales, two of the many reasons you might encounter a line outside this tidy 60-seat storefront tucked in the corner of a generic shopping mall in Rockville. Most of the menu puts you in Perez’s native Peru.


36 THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 17, 2010


★★ THE MAJESTIC Home cooking fancied up for company: That’s the food at the Majestic in Old Town under chef Shannon Overmiller. Here, in a mellow-yellow, booth-lined and painfully clamorous dining room, is where a fan of liver and onions can fi nd bliss, and where desserts might include a fi ne, fat wedge of bundt cake freckled with poppy seeds. The chef ’s crab cake is mostly seafood, her rosy veal chop is lavished with chanterelles, and the cocktails, which change with the season, are top-shelf; what else would you expect from Todd Thrasher, their designer (and a managing partner in the neon-fronted joint, along with the gang from nearby Restaurant Eve and co-owner Virginia Sen. Mark Warner). The portions are almost too generous, and the nostalgia-inducing desserts, including coconut cake, are sweeter than I remember. Restaurateurs looking to poach serving talent would be smart to start here: Majestic’s effervescent and effi cient service is every bit as delightful as the food. // 911 King St., Alexandria; 703-837-9117; www.majesticcafe.com. Open: lunch and dinner daily. All major credit cards. Entree prices: lunch $12.95 to $21.50, dinner $19.95 to $27. Sound check: 80 decibels.


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