Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.
|
Get Your Chile Fix at Ceiba
By
Rina Rapuano
If Iceland has taught us anything, it's that a carefully orchestrated PR campaign revolving around food and spirits can put your country on the culinary map, so to speak, in a matter of minutes.
Enter Chile . . . the new Iceland? First, pisco sours started popping up on trendy cocktail menus around town—not quite as ubiquitous as mojitos, but steadily gaining ground. And now curious foodies can sample Chile's cuisine by ordering from a prix fixe dinner menu through Saturday at Ceiba. The menu—which costs $37 per person (without tax and tip) and $49 per person with wine pairings (worth it for a glass of the Montes Alpha 2005 Chardonnay alone)—is the work of Chilean chef Pilar Rodríguez, and highlights a few ingredients that remain a mystery to most American palates.
The tasting menu includes a different amuse bouche each evening; an appetizer of seared scallop atop a roughly chopped salad of cilantro and onion; a fragrant, rich corn-and-seafood casserole; and a main course of pork ribs caramelized with Ulmo honey, which comes from the Chilean Ulmo tree.
But perhaps the best part of the meal is the dessert of lúcuma crème brûlée, with its side of carica salad. Never heard of lúcuma or carica? That's precisely what the Chilean Embassy would like to change, as they are hoping to start exporting these two unique Chilean fruits to this area.
If this Chilean food, wine, and cocktail trend continues, we all just may be regularly slurping down lúcuma this time next year. Ceiba, 701 14th St., NW; 202-393-3983; ceibarestaurant.com More>> Best Bites Blog | Food & Dining | Restaurant Finder
|
Post a comment
Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. Because of the prevalence of spam, comments are moderated and will not appear immediately on the site. By posting here, you affirm that you are 13 years of age or older.
|
|
Here are 37 top architects who design beautiful homes, additions, and renovations.
more
Happy Fourth of July! In the weekend picks, we’ve got all the Fourth fun you’ll need, from fireworks to parties to recipes. There’s also a poolside happy hour, a midtown bar crawl, and a musical adaptation of, um, Debbie Does Dallas.
more
|