On their appetizer menu, fresh and crispy spring rolls are both typical of Lao cuisine. We ordered the Crying Tiger, which is sliced and grilled flank steak served with spicy lemongrass sauce and soy sauce. Lemongrass, galangal, and padaek (Lao fish sauce) are key ingredients in Lao cuisine. This dish and Larb (also on the menu), is one of the most famous Lao dishes (Wikipedia: Lao Cuisine) and is spicy marinated meat and/or fish combined with herbs, greens, and spices. The dish may be served raw. Our Crying Tiger was very flavorful and spicy.

We also ordered Pad Thai and Panang, which they also have in Laos. The most emblematic dish they suggested we order was Kai Yang (barbecued chicken), which was slowly grilled chicken that was seasoned and served with sticky rice. We also ordered the recommended Green Papaya Salad to go along with it. According to Wikipedia’s entry on Kai yang:

Kai yang or ping gai is a dish originating from the Lao people of Laos and Isan (Northeastern Thailand), but it is now commonly eaten throughout the whole of Thailand. The dish is a standard staple of street markets and readily available at all times. Being a typical Laotian/Isan dish, it is often paired with som tam/tam mak hoong and sticky rice. It is also eaten with raw vegetables, and often dipped in spicy sauces such as Laotian jaew bong. The Laotian name for the dish is means “roast chicken.” In Laotian restaurants in the West, it is known as “Laotian barbecued chicken” or “ping gai”.

A whole chicken is often halved and pounded flat. It is marinated and then grilled over a low heat on a charcoal flame for a long time, but is not cooked to be burnt or dry. The marinade typically includes fish sauce, garlic, turmeric, coriander root (cilantro), and white pepper.

We thought that this dish was really delicious. The sticky rice really separated it from Thai cuisine. We read on Lao Food that this is one of the key staples of Lao cuisine, where the food is often raw or room temperature and served with sticky rice. Diners take small handfuls of the rice, knead it into a ball, and then dip it into condiments and eat it, along with fish or meat. The sticky rice went really well with the chicken, and it also came with a tangy sauce, which was probably tam mak hoong, which is a traditional sauce eaten with sticky rice.

Lao cuisine has many regional variations, according in part to the fresh foods local to each region. A French legacy is also apparent in the capital city, Vientiane, such that baguettes are sold on the street, and French restaurants (often with a naturally Lao, Asian-fusion touch) are common and popular.

The final dish we ordered was Wild Boar Basil, which the owners said was also Lao. According to Lao Food, hunted or wild animals are common in Lao cuisine, due to the proximity to the forest. We couldn’t find a lot of information on this dish, aside from the fact that it seems common at other Thai restaurants.

For appetizers, side dishes, or even a snack or luncheon meal, nothing surpasses hummus (pureed chickpeas) or baba ghanouj (pureed eggplant) with parsley or cumin as a garnish. M’hammara, a mix of red peppers, walnuts and pomegranate syrup, tastes great on pita. Like lebaneh, a yogurt spread drizzled with olive oil and dried mint, it is an appealing party dip. All these are common throughout the Middle East and vary in taste and texture from city to city and family to family.

We noticed that Syrian cuisine seems to contain more pomegranate and also more chopped nuts. Many of the foods contained chopped walnuts. We had the pomegranate hummus, in fact. They also had a lot of items we hadn’t tried before, like Macarona Bel-laban. For our entrees, we had the Kafta Bil Jawz, which the menu lists as “From our ancient Syrian recipe, delicious ground beef with onions, red pepper, walnuts, bulgur, and herbs with a hint of spiciness, grilled and served with a special salad and pomegranate dressing.” This dish was like traditional kofta, but had a much more lemony and citrusy flavor. Also, it was topped with chopped walnuts. We loved the fact that it came with a salad, as well. The seasonings were definitely different than normal cuisine we’ve had and the beef was very tender.

Also, they gave as an adorable birthday celebration!

We wanted to try something uniquely Bangladeshi, and the waiter (and perhaps owner?) was very kind and recommended fish prepared with Bangladeshi spices. From looking over the menu, it seems like there is large overlap between Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine (which makes sense, since the British divided it from India not too long ago: 1947). After reading a little bit online, it seems like the major differences between Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi cuisine is based along religious taboos. You can find pork and beef served throughout all these regions, but religion dictates its focus and importance in each region. Although you might find beef dishes in Indian restaurants, it is certainly not very common, assuming the owners are Hindu. We’ve been much more likely to see pork dishes or chicken dishes in the Indian restaurants we’ve been to in this area. Since Bangladesh is 80% Muslim, it makes sense that we didn’t see any pork dishes on Deshi Spice. However, we did see a lot of lamb, beef, and seafood based dishes. From what we read on Wikipedia:

As a large percentage of the land (over 80% on some occasions) can be under water, either intentionally because of farming practices or due to severe climatological, topographical or geographical conditions, not surprisingly fish features as a major source of protein in the Bangladeshi diet. There is also a saying which goes, “Machh-e-Bhat-e-Bangali” (Fish and rice make a Bengali).

An integral part of Bangladeshi cuisine is beef, the presence of which is a must especially in feasts and banquets. Beef kebab is immensely popular throughout the country. Beef is used in the preparation of a wide range of dishes including biryani, tehari, halim, and many others. Regional feasts such as the Mezbaan of Chittagong, the Ziafat of Sylhet/Comilla or the Dawot of Dhaka will remain incomplete without serving spicy beef.

We ended up ordering the recommended fish and Mughlai Paratha. We wanted to order Phuchka (a.k.a., panipuri – a very popular street food), but since it was towards the end of the week they had run out of that (along with Tandoori Chicken Wings – which we didn’t get to try but sound amazing). The fish was served as a curry and came with rice and chana (chick peas). The curry was pretty spicy (and we love spicy food) and also came with naan. It was really delicious, especially since we rarely eat fish curry. We think what we ordered was listed on the menu as fish bhortha. They have a lot of delicious sounding fish dishes and a pretty large menu.

One of the surprisingly delicious items was the Mughlai Paratha. The paratha is common in South Asian cuisine, and is fried dough that is often seasoned or filled. Some websites suggest that this dish dates back to Mogul (Mughal) days, but we couldn’t find any evidence of its. We did read that this is a popular Bengali snack. The Mughlai Paratha always contains egg. At Deshi Spice, the Mughlai Paratha contained egg and sliced green chiles. It was delicious and really spicy every time we hit a green chile.

Hot pot is kind of like fondue in dining style, with a pot in the middle of the table and a bunch of meat and vegetables. You cook the food yourself and its best to eat it with a group of friends or people you’re close to, since you’ll be sharing everything. Chef Liu is from Chengdu, and according to A Fiery Feast: Sichuan Hot Pot, hot pot is a Sichuan institution. It’s especially an important cooking technique in Chengdu, because the weather is frequently damp, so the hot pot helps natives withstand the bad weather. The experience in Chengdu is much less sophisticated than in Mala Tang, where it’s eaten as a street food and also in large and chaotic dining halls. Also, the food is extremely spicy, while the spiciness at Mala Tang is toned down.

What makes Sichuan (or Szechuan/Szechwan) cuisine different from other regions of China is that it is famed for bold flavors, spiciness, strong tastes and the usage of garlic, chili pepper, peanuts, sesame paste, and ginger. The four best known regional sub-styles are Chongqing style, Chengdu style, Zigong style, and Buddhist vegetarian style. Mala Tang follows Chengdu style.

We ordered dumplings and spicy cold noodles for our appetizer. The spicy cold noodles are apparently another famous and ever present piece of Sichuan culinary tradition (a recipe is featured here). We thought they were really delicious, although we recommend stirring them since we didn’t realize there was a lot of sauce on the bottom of the bowl. The dumplings were also delicious. Unlike typical Chinese restaurant dumplings, these were thinner and more crescent shaped with a thinner wrapper. They were also served with lots of chili oil, scallions, and spices.

Our waitress was incredibly helpful and advised us that we should have on mala style hot pot and one mild kind, so we could try both. She lit our hot pots and we picked sirloin and tofu for our meat options and broccoli, potato, bean sprouts, and enoki mushrooms for our vegetables. She brought us bowls of soy sauce along with several other condiments we could add to our soy sauce, like chili paste and a barbecue sauce. The meat and vegetable platters were huge – there was no way we could come close to eating all that we were served.

A Fiery Feast: Sichuan Hot Pot has this to add about hot pot style:

Whatever can be boiled, can be thrown into the pot to augment the basic chili pepper oil foundation. Standard ingredients include: all parts of the pig, chicken and cow; various freshwater creatures, such as river eels, snails, frogs and fish; any and all vegetables, including but not limited to potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, lotus root, bamboo, leeks and onions and a variety of gourds and tubers for which there are no English translation.

Hot pot is the pinnacle of all culinary experiences for Sichuanese. Hot pot is a social event, a bonding experience and a rite of passage. Courage is measured in a man’s ability to eat hot pot repeatedly and vigorously, while drinking as many beers as possible. Acceptance into the heart of a Sichuanese woman requires several demonstrations of hot pot eating prowess. Business deals and marriage proposals alike can be sanctified before the hot pot altar.

We really had fun with the hot pot style. Our waitress brought us bowls and served us broth from the hot pots themselves. After cooking meat and vegetables in the hot pot, the broth becomes a soup. The meat curled up as we cooked it, which we read is because they slice it frozen so it curls up while cooking. Every so often the waitress would add more water to the pot. The tofu was a little difficult to pick up because it became slippery. We had a lot of leftover food we couldn’t cook and eat, and our waitress was kind enough to put all of it into our hot pots, cook it for us, and then package it all as a soup we could take some. She was so nice!

For dessert we had the sesame balls and the pumpkin pie. Sesame balls, or Jin deui, are round balls coated with sesame that are chewy and filled with a sweet paste. Wikipedia states that they are very common and very old. The pumpkin pie was a round disc and served warm. It wasn’t sweet at all, but was still kind of nice to eat. It’s rare that Chinese restaurants have traditional desserts. This dessert is also traditional, but we couldn’t find a lot about it.

Kebabs are a staple item in Pakistani cuisine today, and one can find countless varieties of kebabs all over the country. Each region has its own varieties of kebabs but some like the Seekh kebab, Chicken Tikka, and Shami kebab are especially popular varieties throughout the country. Generally, kebabs from Balochistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tend to be identical to the Afghan style of barbecue, with salt and coriander being the only seasoning used. Regional kebab recipes from Karachi and the wider Sindh region is famous for its spicy kebabs, often marinated in a mixture of spices, lemon juice and yoghurt. Barbecued food is also extremely popular in some cities of Punjab such as Lahore, Gujranwala and Sialkot. Al-Hamra Restaurant and Bundu Khan kebab House are famous throughout Pakistan for their taste and variety of kebabs. Kebab houses are said to be the most profitable food businesses in Pakistan.

The weekend only specials at Ravi Kabob House are haleem, nehari, spicy beef curry, paya, and hot and spicy beef trotters. They also have some other traditional dishes, although they might be hesitant to let you choose them (they tried to dissuade us from ordering brain and trotters). We ended up ordering nehari and the trotters. Nehari is like a cross between a beef stew and a beef curry, with very tender beef and spices. According to Wikipedia, “Muhajir immigrants from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh region brought [nehari] to Pakistan after independence in 1947; today, it is regarded as the national dish of Pakistan. The dish is known for its spiciness and taste. It is originally more of a delicacy with myriad variations on spiciness and texture.” The trotters were something we had never had before. They didn’t have a lot of meat on them and required a lot more napkins than we anticipated we’d need (we had really sticky fingers).

Probably our favorite item that we ordered was the special samosa. It was a samosa served in a bowl with a yogurt based sauce – it almost looked like soup, but with the samosa wrapper and filling in it. It was delicious! The naan, channa, and spinach were delicious. Also, there seemed to be lot of natives in the restaurant and it was consistently busy. The only drawback was that we saw a sign for homemade kulfi and ended up forgetting to order some at the end of the meal! Kulfi is South Asian ice cream, but is much richer and of course incorporates a lot of South Asian spices like saffron, cardamom, etc. The menu advertised Lahori Kulfi – too bad we didn’t get a chance to figure out what that is.

We ended up ordering a large amount of food (we were starving). We admit we ordered pretty much only food we recognized (we were hungry and incoherent!). The food that arrived was yummy, but also tasted like the Middle Easter cuisine that we are used to. Wikipedia implies that there are a lot of unique foods to Israel (from the Jewish influence). We didn’t see these on the menu, but it is very possible we missed them. Any thoughts and comments to extend our experience are welcome.

Also, they have a lot of pastries you can carry out. We loved the crescent shaped cookies.

Toki Underground is a tiny and trendy walk-up restaurant in the H Street Corridor (Toki can refer to a Japanese clan, various fictional characters, a city, a train, a video game, etc.). It has a neat skateboard themed interior and gets so packed that it’s hard to find a place (it is tiny, too), so if you want to go it is a good idea to go early. Apparently everyone loves ramen, and there is a lot more variety to it than beef or chicken. In Japan, almost every locality in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen of Kyushu to the miso ramen of Hokkaido. Toki Underground‘s is tonkotsu style (aside from the vegetarian ramen).

According to Wikipedia, ramen is actually Chinese in origin. No one really knows when ramen was introduced to Japan and where the word ramen came from. Wikipedia has this to say about the history of ramen:

After World War II, cheap flour imported from the U.S. swept the Japanese market. At the same time, millions of Japanese troops had returned from China and continental East Asia. Many of these returnees had become familiar with Chinese cuisine and subsequently set up Chinese restaurants across Japan. Eating ramen, while popular, was still a special occasion that required going out.

In 1958, instant noodles were invented by Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-Japanese founder and chairman of Nissin Foods, now run by his son Koki Ando. Named the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century in a Japanese poll,[1] instant ramen allowed anyone to make this dish simply by adding boiling water.

Beginning in the 1980s, ramen became a Japanese cultural icon and was studied around the world from many perspectives. At the same time, local varieties of ramen were hitting the national market and could even be ordered by their regional names. A ramen museum opened in Yokohama in 1994.

There are several different types of ramen, but Toki Underground specializes in one type: tonkotsu. This is ramen with a cloudly white colored broth made from boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen over high heat for many hours, which suffuses the broth with a hearty pork flavor and a creamy consistency that rivals milk or melted butter or gravy (depending on the shop). Most shops, but not all, blend this pork broth with a small amount of chicken and vegetable stock and/or soy sauce. Although these noodles are typically straight, they aren’t at Toki Underground.

We tried Curry Chicken Hakata, and it was delicious! Also, completely different than commercially prepared ramen that we are used to. This ramen was almost decadent and the addition of egg and fried and seasoned chicken was incredible. Wikipedia writes this about the Hakata style:

Hakata ramen originates from Hakata district of Fukuoka city in Kyūshū. It has a rich, milky, pork-bone tonkotsu broth and rather thin, non-curly and resilient noodles. Often, distinctive toppings such as crushed garlic, beni shoga (pickled ginger), sesame seeds, and spicy pickled mustard greens (karashi takana) are left on tables for customers to serve themselves. Ramen stalls in Hakata and Tenjin are well-known within Japan. Recent ramen trends have made Hakata ramen one of the most popular types of ramen in Japan, and these days several chain restaurants specializing in Hakata ramen can be found all over the country.

We didn’t receive the straight noodles, ours was more the classic ramen we’d expect. They also have dumplings and dessert – but the ramen was plenty for us.

Ren’s Ramen

We were craving ramen, but didn’t feel like driving to H Street and then finding Toki Underground completely packed. So we went to Ren’s Ramen in Wheaton, M.D., which is a small and simple restaurant that also serves ramen. They also have convenient hours (11:30a.m. – 10:30 p.m. on most days). At Ren’s Ramen, you pick your soup base (miso, tonshio, shoyu, or vegetable). The non-vegetarian soups come with pork and noodles. You then pick your extra toppings – we ended up picking seaweed, corn, and egg. The egg is infused with soy sauce, we think, and is served soft-boiled. They have a few sides, but not many. We seriously contemplated ordering more ramen to go, but were pretty full.

However, in learning about the history of drunken noodles, we learned that they aren’t Thai in origin! Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao) was made popular by ethnically Chinese residents in Laos and Northern Thailand. It’s similar to Pad See Ew, but has more flavor and uses broad noodles. So, actually aside from being made by permanent residents in Thailand, it isn’t a staple of Thai cuisine – just wildly popular.

According to Wisegeek, in order for a drunken noodle dish to be legitimate, it must contain Thai basil, although Holy basic is more common and traditional and sweet basil is also used. Vinegar, sugar, and oyster sauce is also sometimes addend.

There’s a lot of debate regarding where the name comes from. Wisegeek says that ”most people say that the name of the meal refers to the spiciness it tends to have, making diners heavily drink to combat the heat.”

Wiki Answers writes:

No one is sure where the name of this dish comes from. Some believe it is called drunken noodles because it’s an excellent hangover cure. Others believe that it is so hot that the eater has to be drunk to be able to stand it, while some are sure that it’s because one becomes drunk trying to drown out the heat with alcohol. Still others believe that the name comes from the wide assortment of ingredients the dish contains: The chef is drunk enough to throw in a bunch of vegetables and spices without thinking it over. The most probable explanation is that this is one of the only foods available on the streets of Thailand late at night and in the very early morning, the times when inebriated revelers are leaving places of celebration. It is very possible that the extremely “wobbly” noodles themselves give the dish its name.

When we sat down, we were immediately brought an appetizer of soy beans, puffed rice, and beaten rice (a.k.a. flattened rice). We’d never had rice prepared in a beaten or flattened form. It was hard and chewy, and mixed really well with the soybeans and puffed rice – in fact, we had to stop ourselves from eating the whole plate ravenously. This type of rice is eaten in Nepal, and Bangladesh. It’s made by flattening dehusked rice grains. The rice can be reconstituted with water or a liquid, and the flattening makes it a convenience food and easier to prepare. Soybeans grow readily in Nepal, so they are also part of the cuisine.

For our appetizer, we ordered Samaya Baji, which on the menu was described as “beaten rice with roasted meat, smoked fish, boiled-then-fried egg, black soybeans and diced ginger. (usually a customary food in Newari culture).” We wanted to try something customarily Nepalese and avoid dishes that seemed to be Indian crossovers. We were pleasantly surprised by the colorful dish that arrived, complete with more soybeans and beaten rice. We really enjoyed how tasty it was and how interesting all the components of the dish were, particularly the hard-boiled and then fried egg, and the fish. We recommend trying this appetizer. By the way, the Newa people live in are an indigenous people from the Kathmandu Valley, where they have lived since prehistoric times. Their cultural community is mostly Tibeto-Burman, but also Indo-Aryan, and they speak their own language (Nepal Bhasa/Newari).

For our entrees, we ordered a lamb curry that came with rice. This food item was similar to Indian curries and came in a tureen with white rice. We also ordered one of Nepal’s national dishes: momo (we ordered the Himalayan Kothey: Delicious dumplings stuffed with ground chicken and Tibetan spices, wrapped in flour dough and then steamed before pan fried, served with hot chutney sauce). Momos are dumplings, and according to Wikipedia:

Momos are a traditional delicacy in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Darjeeling district and Ladakh. They are one of the most popular fast food in Nepal and many other South Asian region populated with people of Nepali origin and people of hilly origin. They are also common in places with noticeable Nepalese and Tibetan diaspora, such as Assam, Delhi, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal.

They can be either steamed or pan fried, and ours were both. They came with an orange sesame sauce and a coriander sauce. They are apparently a very popular menu item, because lots of people around us also ordered them. Since we’re used to having dumplings as appetizers, it was different to have a huge platter of dumplings. They tasted very similar to other types of dumplings, but the filling wasn’t dense and they were spicier and more flavorful. The dumpling wrapper was also a lot more tin than a typical Chinese dumpling.

Although the dumplings and the curry were good, they weren’t nearly as unique and interesting as our appetizers. Next time we go back, we might order only appetizers.

They also have a fixed price menu, coupons on their website, and free delivery within a 2 mile radius. Delivery Nepalese food is pretty awesome.

Myanmar Restaurant is located in Falls Church, Virginia, and tucked into a strip mall set back from Lee Highway. It has a cozy interior and when we arrived the two dining rooms were pretty full. They also have leather-backed chairs, which are pretty comfortable. The service there is low-key, and looks like a family run business. About half of the diners seemed to be Burmese (speaking in an unidentifiable language to the waiters). We’d read as far as the first line of the Wikipedia entry, which stated that Burmese cuisine is a combination of Indian, Thai, and Chinese cuisines. However, after trying the cuisine, we’d have to say that it doesn’t really taste like any of those three, and tasted to us like its own unique species.

Our waiter was more than enthusiastic to help us decide what to order (he did not want us to order spare ribs and a pork dish – in fact, he didn’t want us to order the spare ribs at all!). We ended up ordering as appetizers two types of salad: Pickled Tea Leaf Salad (which our waiter kindly combined with the Pickled Ginger Salad so we could try both) and a Curried Tofu Salad. Burmese salads, rather than being insipid and light appetizers, are very flavorful, highly spiced, and filling. The Pickled Tea Leaf Salad had great textures and flavors, including whole peanuts and raw cabbage. The Curried Tofu Salad was like no salad we had ever tried, with slices of cooked tofu in it. Both dishes were quite spicy and very unique.

Wikipedia informs us that pickled tea leaves, or Lahpet, is unique to Burma and is considered a national delicacy and plays a significant role in Burmese culture. In fact, Burma is one of only a few countries where tea leaves are used in drinks and eaten, as well. They’re served in special dishes and are every day staples. The pickled tea leaf salad is common all over Burma.

We also learned that the tofu is different, and that Burmese tofu is not made from soy, but from chickpea flour. It’s texture and flavor is different than soy-based tofu. Also, it is prepared in Burma in many different ways. The tofu salad we had is another extremely common dish in Burma, and is eaten as a snack and as a meal.

We also ordered a vegetable tofu dish, which was bland and tasted like one of those “healthy options” dishes on Chinese carry-out menus. Our other entree was Nan gyi, recommended by our waiter. It was a spicy dish with spaghetti-like noodles with a curry-like flavor. We’ve since learned that this has been called Burmese  spaghetti. One of the common garnishes on all the food were white crispy wonton-like strips.

Our spare ribs, although we were advised not to order them, were delicious and came with a molasses-tasting sauce.

The menu here is quite extensive, but the salads were what we found most delicious.