Mothers, grandmothers, uncles . . . those are the influences that local chefs cited again and again when I asked about these ten dishes—my favorite comfort foods of the season. But you don’t need to share in the nostalgia (if only croquetas had been my go-to afterschool snack!) to appreciate these creations, as delicious as they are soothing.

Zucchini Fritters at Namak

Turkish chef Tolgahan Gulyiyen is lucky enough to have an arsenal of family recipes that he says dates back centuries. At this Mediterranean dining room in Adams Morgan, he gives the credit for these golden, olive-oil-fried rounds—made from grated zucchini and carrot, lots of herbs, egg, and flour—to his mom. When it comes to the excellent yogurt sauce served with the fritters, Gulyiyen introduces his own twist, switching out typical raw garlic for a more mellow garlic confit.

Mac and Cheese at Money Muscle BBQ

location_on 8630 Fenton St., Silver Spring; 12830 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring

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Mac and cheese—perhaps America’s quintessential comfort food—can be a tricky restaurant dish. You don’t want something too fancy, made with, say, an overdose of truffle oil or an entire lobster. But you also don’t want mac that tastes like it’s out of a $2.99 box. At Ed Reavis’s Silver Spring barbecue takeout operation—run out of his restaurants All Set and Fryer’s Road-side—the chef strikes gold with a recipe that tastes familiar yet better than anything you could likely make at home. His recipe is simple, but a few things help it stand out: a double dose of cheese (Gruyère and white cheddar), twisty campanelle pasta, which catches the rich sauce better than elbows, and a crunchy layer of herbed breadcrumbs.

 

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Pizza at Red Hound

location_on 7050 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park

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Married couple Charbel Abrache and Andrea Alvarez, alums of the vaunted Shaw bread bakery Seylou, are behind this snug new pizza-and-soft-serve spot. And if you’re a fan of Seylou’s slightly sour loaves, you’ll want to order one of Abrache’s rustic square pies, which nod to both Roman and Sicilian styles of pizza-making. The crusts, baked in olive-oil-greased pans, are both sturdy and airy. The bases taste like—no surprise—great bread, and they hold up to all sorts of toppings, whether pepperoni with hot honey or an array of zucchini, squash blossom, and other veggies with Parmesan cream. Can’t decide? The pizza is available by the slice, too.

 

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Lotus-Stem Kofta at Tamashaa

location_on 3115 14th St., NW

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The latest glittery Indian spot on the scene is this small-plates restaurant in Columbia Heights, from the owners of Bombay Velvet in Reston. There’s plenty of showmanship in the smoking cocktails, colorful decor, and flower-strewn plating—but it’s this comparatively homely vegetarian dish that blows me away. The kofta look like meatballs, but they’re actually made from braised lotus stems and preserved tomatoes. Get plenty of bread to sop up the lush, aromatic korma gravy.

 

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Egg Tarts at Maketto

location_on 1351 H St., NE

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Erik Bruner-Yang’s hit Taiwanese/Cambodian restaurant will soon celebrate its tenth anniversary. Perhaps you know it for the Gruyère dumplings with beef chili or the fried chicken draped in five-spice caramel. A less famous offering: a pair of humble egg tarts with perfectly flaky crust, a creamy coconut filling, and whiffs of burnt sugar. There’s no better dessert after a parade of fiery share plates.

 

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Croquetas at Casa Teresa

location_on 919 19th St., NW

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Rubén Garcia, the chef behind the Spanish dining room anchoring the Square food hall in downtown DC, calls croqueta dough one of his very first food memories. And so the fritters he serves at his restaurant are all about nostalgia: The recipe is the same one his late mother relied on when he was a kid in need of an afterschool snack. Bagel bites these are not. Garcia’s process—roasting chickens and vegetables for the ultra-creamy béchamel filling, letting the croquetas set, coating them in panko, letting them set again—takes two to three days. They’re fried to order, and you can find a grab-and-go version at his neighboring Jamón Jamón stall.

 

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“The Pasta” at Neutral Ground

location_on 6641 Old Dominion Dr., McLean

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The peach-and-green dining room at this McLean hot spot feels more Palm Beach than Crescent City, but chef/owner David Guas still sprinkles touches of his native Louisiana into some of his dishes. Take his dinner menu’s sole pasta (just called “The Pasta”), which stars nubs of crawfish and a fabulously bright, creamy sauce. “I’m not doing anything mysterious,” Guas says of the glaze, but the fact that he makes typically strong ingredients—anchovies, raw and black garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon, and a whole lot of salt—taste so smooth and harmonious feels like some kind of magic.

 

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Breakfast Torta at San Pancho

location_on 7056 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park

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The breakfast (and lunch and dinner) burritos at this new shop—a spinoff of nearby Cielo Rojo—are getting all the attention. And they’re great. But don’t sleep on the weekday-only breakfast tortas, either. Each bite of the monster-size sandwiches, served on crackly-crusted telera bread, brings a fireworks show of flavor. Zingy pickled jalapeños and chorizo (the crumbly sausage is optional, but a must-get for me) are tempered with layers of queso fresco, melty Oaxacan cheese, avocado, refried beans, and scrambled eggs.

 

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Spaghetti Limone at Pastis

location_on 1323 Fourth St., NE

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Lemon spaghetti is the dish I make at home maybe more than any other. It’s insanely easy and satisfying, and relies on just a few staple ingredients that are always around—lemon, butter, Parmesan, and pasta. No wonder it’s been popping up on more restaurant menus this year. What makes the version at this buzzy Union Market brasserie worth seeking out? The velvety, beautifully balanced sauce, sure, but also a wild-card ingredient: shavings of briny Spanish bottarga.

 

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Shrimp Thermidor at Moon Rabbit

location_on 927 F St., NW

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A century ago, lobster Thermidor—a halved crustacean enriched with a creamy, brandy-spiked sauce—was one of the celebration dishes of choice for the swell set. When Kevin Tien, chef/owner of this modern-Vietnamese dining room in Penn Quarter, set out to resurrect the dish, he reflected on his own memories of special occasions, specifically the long skewers of grilled shrimp that his uncle would serve with lemon butter and a lime-chili sauce. The result: grilled shrimp bathed in basil butter and his own lime-based sauce, then set atop lobster-stock-fortified béarnaise. It isn’t just my favorite dish on Moon Rabbit’s menu—it’s Tien’s, too.

This article appears in the October 2024 issue of Washingtonian.