Washington DC – Page 5

Maruko Japanese Restaurant

The 11th day of August is an auspicious day that is well-embedded in my memory. It is not a national holiday, a birthday, or an independence day – it is my parents’ wedding anniversary. Every year, I am duly reminded of this date by my parents who will drop hints when I get a call from them a week or a few days before the day itself. My parents view this date with the utmost importance, and the same expectation is expected from their children. Forgetting to call and wish them on the 11th would warrant a slight chiding or an email stating, “You forgot Daddy’s (or Mummy’s) wedding anniversary”, depending who was the sender dropping the not-so-subtle reprimand.

To celebrate the occasion, my parents would take the family out for dinner, and their favorite place to mark the occasion was usually an elegant Japanese restaurant in a top notch hotel. Growing up in Malaysia, Japanese cuisine was served primarily at high-end Japanese restaurants, and a visit to one was usually an elegant and fascinating dining experience, which at the same time exposed me to this rather exotic far-eastern cuisine at an early age. These were the days before the proliferation of Sushi bars and Teppanyaki grills, which later became abundant and fashionable in major cities. To reflect the special event that we were celebrating and to match the refined and exquisite ambience surrounding us diners, my siblings and I would dress up in our finest outfits – this was definitely no ordinary everyday dining experience.

With Sushi bars abound and Japanese restaurants everywhere these days, this type of cuisine is very accessible and has become well-appreciated by many. My early experiences with Japanese food in Washington DC can be characterized and range from expensive but well-cooked food to inexpensive but rather inferior quality. With a great number of these restaurants these days, competition has raised the bar, and as customers, we have started to expect more.

Maruko Japanese Restaurant has been located on a long strip dotted with some good restaurants (blog on Bangkok 54) in the neighborhood of Arlington, VA, for as long as I can recall passing down that road. In its earlier days, it went by the name Matuba, but I suspect that a new ownership brought about the name change. The realization of its new sign was as subtle and seamless as in the change of management, and the cooking has not suffered many bumps, if hardly at all, during this transition.

Usually, I would forgo ordering appetizers here since I know that the main course is rather substantial for me, especially at this age of a slowing metabolism and trying to lose some weight from all this food blogging field work. But I was feeling rather famished on one visit, and I decided to order an appetizer that was not my usual fare. The Squid Salad was abound with strips of squid, sitting on a lettuce salad, and topped with a daikon radish, ginger, and miso salad dressing. The strips of squid took me by surprise with their sweetness paired by their tenderness in each bite I took. The dressing was the perfect accompaniment in this seafood salad with its slight sweetness and muted ginger-bite. An order of Gyozas or pot stickers was tasty and good, but nothing different from what you could expect from a good restaurant.

One of my favorite fare here is The Teriyaki Chicken and Sushi Combination, a mixture of the hot and cold, the raw seafood and cooked chicken. The thigh meat comes with its skin slightly charred from the grill, and it is slathered with a lightly sweetened sauce. The other half of the order is a plateful of sushi (tuna, salmon, yellow tail and eel) and pieces of California roll. The dish represents the best of both worlds in terms of textures and flavors, and it is quite hearty and satisfying on these levels. A bowl of well-made miso soup as an opener is filled with slippery seaweed (wakame) and spongy bits of tofu, which whets one’s appetite for what is to come. For less than $13, this combination is a great deal and a winner.

During the summer, I tend to order the large Sushi/Sashimi Combo that consists of pieces of Sushi made with Tuna, Salmon, Eel, Yellow Tail, Shrimp, and Squid, pieces of California Roll, and purses of Salmon Roe and Sea Urchin. The dish is a feast for the eye and for one’s hungry stomach, and seafood freshness is notable here for the most part (the piece of squid was a bit too slimy for me but still edible – perhaps a textural issue for me). The sushi rice is cooked and shaped perfectly that they do not fall apart in the chopsticks, and it complements the seafood pieces mild ocean sweetness. The Salmon Roe and Sea Urchin purses are bursting with a slight brininess that reflects their freshness and rich unctousness. This dish is definitely a raw fish delight. A friend’s order of Grilled Sea Eel (Unagi Donburi) looked great with large pieces of fish covered with a light sweet sauce sitting on a bed of rice. However, my friend was slightly disappointed by that day’s meal as he claimed that he had had a better dinner there with that dish.

During my meal, our friendly waitress urged me to take a couple of photos of dishes coming from the Sushi Bar that looked delectable and irresistible. One was a Spicy Tuna Roll that was not your typical version; this restaurant makes it with soya bean skin which I have never seen before. The other dish was a Tempura and Crab Roll topped with flourescent red and green flying fish roe. Even though they were not our orders, the visuals were so tempting for me to perhaps order them on the next visit and definitely when the weather gets warm enough.

Maruko serves the customer delicious and fresh Japanese cuisine at a very reasonable price. In time and with various restaurant visits, I have developed a sense of trust and dependability on its cooking and the freshness of its seafood, much like having one hairstylist that you would allow to have free rein with. It is definitely one restaurant worth returning to time and time again, like the one my parents would take us to yearly for many years. This place is surely Oishi, or good eats.

La Churrería de Madrid

Restaurants

As a study abroad student spending a semester in Spain, I fell in love with Spanish food cooked by my house-mothers whom I insisted that they prepared the most authentic local fare. At times I would come home to find a wonderful Paella with little crabs, or a very tasty rabbit in garlic and beer stew, or even some freshly bought blood sausage that I developed an affinity for – it was truly a six-month culinary eye-opening experience. In between the home-cooked meals, I would savor tasty bites at Tapas bars, restaurants, carnival stands, and street stalls.

Upon graduating from college in the DC area in the early 90’s, I went on a culinary mission and stumbled across La Churrería de Madrid in the busy Adams Morgan area. The first few visits were rewarded by wonderfully authentic cooking that took me back to the Iberian Peninsula. However, in time, the restaurant fell off my culinary list as the area became overcrowded with an upsurge of new restaurants and their patrons, which made parking around there close to impossible. Recently, upon happenstance, I stumbled upon this old culinary friend and I decided to pay it another visit.

On my last visit, I tentatively walked into the place that had a “Cash Only” sign plastered on its door. The restaurant looked much liked it did in previous years – a bit dark and nearly lifeless, with a soccer match playing on the large flat screen. My entrance appeared to interrupt the staff’s well-guarded solitude at the bar. I was brought upstairs where the dining room is, and I had no problems finding the choice table by the window to get some excellent window photo shots since I was the only customer at that time.

I asked the waiter if the original Spanish owners were still around since I didn’t notice them. He replied that the place had changed hands and that they had gone back to Spain to retire. At this point, some reservations about the quality of food I could expect from the kitchen started to rouse within me. Perusing the menu, few changes had been made, such as the absence of the more exotic dishes like Rabbit Stew and Blood Sausage – obviously they were catering to a more general clientele.

I decided to go the Tapas route and order a slew of small bites as my meal. I started off with the Appetizer Platter (Entremés 4X4) that consisted of creamy light Chicken Croquettes (Croquetas), pillowy soft Spanish Potato Egg Bites (Tortilla Española), meaty Beef and Olive Patties (Empanadillas), and robust Green Olives (Aceitunas). The first bite of each Tapas brought me back to my collegial days in that sunny country, and I was unexpectedly awakened by a sense of expectation and anticipation; the tapas were well-prepared and perfectly seasoned, greaseless, and they tasted like creations prepared by a true master. I asked the waiter who was in charge of the kitchen; he replied that the cook was the daughter of the previous one – this, a tradition definitely well passed on. I later learned that the restaurant was not in the hands of strangers, but the previous owner’s nieces – this indeed was reassuring to this writer.

My next dish was Mushrooms sautéed with Shallots, Garlic in Sherry sauce (Champiñones Salteados). It had a wonderful woodsy earthiness, mellowed out by sweet shallots, and rounded off by a dark boozy sauce. This was so satisfying that it could easily replace a meat course. Fortunately, there was lots of sliced bread that I used to sop up every drop of that rich tasty liquor.

A side of potatoes would not usually conjure up much excitement, but I had to order Patatas Bravas, or Angry Potatoes, as it is a Tapas standard fare and the litmus test of a good Spanish kitchen. This kitchen’s rendition did indeed pass with high marks. The wedges of potato were perfectly cooked and nearly greaseless, lightly coated with a spicy tangy sauce that makes them completely irresistible. Potato never tasted this good!

I took a stab at my table companion’s Breaded Chicken Scallopine (Milanesa de Pollo). Normally, I am not too fond of this rather quite pedestrian dish but this version did take me by surprise. The chicken was coated fairly lightly with well-seasoned breadcrumbs, and it was crispy with a bare hint of grease from the frying. More importantly, the thin slice of chicken was still moist and flavorful, which, otherwise, could be a dry stodgy mess under lesser hands – I had to take a couple more stabs at my companion’s meal with mild surprise. The accompanying black beans and rice were quite tasty but nothing exceptional.

Most times, especially after scoffing down a satisfying meal, I would resist ordering dessert . But a visit to La Churrería would not be complete without ordering the signature dessert that this “Churro stand” is known for – Churros. As a student living in Madrid, I would stumble out of the Metro station, either tired or a bit boozed-up from cheap beers, looking for a snack before walking back to my apartment. Without fail, there would always be a stand selling freshly fried churros with a side serving of lava-like hot chocolate, thick enough to stand a churro in the middle of the cup. La Churrería did not disappoint me again, and I was savoring the finger-wide, crispy outside, soft inside fried dough sticks as if I were suffering from “the munchies”.

The thick hot chocolate that came in an espresso cup was just adequate enough to fulfil all the churro-dunking. I later learned from the waiter that what makes Spanish churros unique from other versions is the high content of yucca/cassava in the dough that results in a smoother inside.

I walked out of La Churrería into the gray winter’s cold as if walking into the Spanish sun, sated and feeling fulfilled by a wonderful culinary experience while reliving youthful memories with this surprisingly delightful meal. I promised myself not to let too much time pass by again before revisiting this Spanish treasure and savoring the Paella that I used to enjoy in previous years – at $34 for two persons, it is high on my list. ¡Viva España!