The Washington Post Magazine - USA (2021-11-28)

(EriveltonMoraes) #1

  1. Seeing double

  2. New color

  3. New message

  4. Reversed colors

  5. 3-D glasses

  6. Stained glass

  7. New trim

  8. No shadowing

  9. Looking aside

  10. Open eye

  11. Blue petal

  12. New route


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SOLUTION TO PUZZLE
“PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD,” NOV. 21

KEY TO THE PREVIOUS SECOND GLANCE
NOV. 21

service as well as connections to Planet
Word. Hence the expanded name,
Immigrant Food Plus.
The lunch drill involves ordering at a
counter in the rear and waiting a few
minutes for something superior to
Subway, Potbelly or similar mass
feeders. Make that the Old Saigon, a
crusty banh mi crammed with
succulent adobo chicken and an Asian
slaw, and Mumbai Mariachi, a bowl of
soft marinated steak on a garden of
spinach, charred corn, carrot threads,
roasted potatoes and more made sweet
and smoky with a dressing of mango
and chipotle. Yes, there’s a lot going on,
but also lots of flavor. In a nod to
Kamala Harris, Madam VP’s Heritage
bowl brings together curried chicken,
turmeric-tinted rice, sweet plantains
and juicy pineapple: a l ittle Indian, a
little Jamaican, altogether lively and
lovely.
The ch oice place to enjoy takeout on
a nice day is across the street, where you
can see how $21 million transformed
Franklin Park. Customers are also
welcome to a stool at the bar, its
laminated counter set with book jackets
and letters from famous immigrants, or
beyond a s heer curtain, in the cozy front
dining room whose rafters are green
with plants. Either landing spot is a nice
break from the office (unless, of course,
you’re still working from home in your
sweats).
Night is when I a ppreciate
Immigrant Food Plus most, though.
The sense of fast-casual is erased by soft
lighting, hosts showing you to your
table and entrees that pair novelty with
sophistication. Chicken Milanesa might
have Italians scratching their heads, but
also eating to the finish. The golden
crust relies on ground cassava versus
breadcrumbs for its crunch; a topping
of fontina cheese and tomato sauce slips
berbere, the warm Ethiopi an spice
blend, into the meld. (Oh, yeah, the
plate also comes with buttery mashed
potatoes and a w ell of chicken gravy,
both fab.) Thai steak is true to its words,
sliced beef cooked the color you ask,
dappled with crushed nuts and a bacon-
laced chimichurri and served opposite a
semicircle of fragrant rice topped with
microgreens. A lighter plate is
swordfish carpaccio, slicked with a
caper dressing and chive oil, and all but
hidden beneath a cover of cherry
tomatoes, diced cucumbers and flat
croutons.

Drinks are priced like the upscale restaurant the venue
becomes at night. They’re also easy to enjoy. My poison of choice
among the classics is the $15, pleasantly bitter Toronto, suited for
the season with bourbon and Fernet Branca. Coasters double as
teach ing moments. Turn them over to find three icebreakers. One
reads: “Name the one who is not an immigrant” followed by a list
of the CEOs behind Tesla, Microsoft, Google, Uber and Apple.
(Correct answer: Tim Cook of Ap ple.)
Your server is likely to pitch the “dim sum experience” for $20 a
person. Take the plunge or miss the biggest thrill on the menu: a
series of “world bites” presented in a three-tiered bamboo steamer.
Revealed first are crisp “Latin” wontons with centers of plantains,
carrots and other vegetables that blossom with a dip in their fiery
chile sauce, and one-bite tacos featuring shiso leaves wrapped
around tuna tartare, fruity and refreshing with minced pickled
pineapple. Cute: The tiny tacos are held together with miniature
clothespins. The second basket — m eaty, minty kibbe and ground
chicken bound in spiky shredded phyllo — leaves me wishing for
more than a morsel per person. The bottom tier extends the fun
with pillowy steamed buns stuffed with shredded pork, st inging
onions and kicky mayonnaise.
As they do with everything they create, Limardo and chef de
cuisine Mileyda “Mile” Montezuma, 30, sketched out on pap er
their ideas for the show. Their plans for the worldly dim sum
involved the most “spiderweb of flavors,” says the chef de cuisine
responsible for all three outlets. (And to think the snacks were
initially meant for customers at the bar.)
Maybe you want less drama. Check out the trio of Middl e
Eastern dips — hot-with-harissa hummus, crunchy-with-walnuts
muha mmara, green-with-herbs shanleesh — accompanied by hot
striped pita. The spread is enough finger food for two or three.
Opened in October, Immigrant Food Plus is still finessing a
few recipes. Alphabet soup, a shout-out to Planet Word, has
“coming soon” attached to its description. Montezuma says she
and her boss are still trying to find a suitable pasta for the letters.
The sweetest link to the museum — the Globe, inspired by one of
its interactive exhibits — is a reality. Diners crack a chocolate shell

to access the coffee-flavored chocolate mousse inside.
Not until my last dinner did I experience the restaurant’s
second dining room, to the side of the bar. The additional space is
quieter than up front, thanks to a ceiling draped with rugs, and it
comes with a link to the 19th-century building’s past: a big black
furnace door that a host might open to reveal ... a w all of white
bricks these days. The restaurant’s mission to get diners to think
about the larger world practically follows them out the door.
Checks are dropped off in what looks like a passport.
Washington’s museum restaurants tend to be afterthoughts,
designed more for refueling than re flecting. Until recently, the
most notable exception was Sweet Home Cafe, the expansive food
court in the National Museum of African American History and
Culture. Immigrant Food Plus goes a step further, staying open
after Planet Word closes for the day.
In every way, the restaurant is a plus.

Chef Enrique Limardo and chef de cuisine
Mileyda “Mile” Montezuma.

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