About Thip Khao
The largest of the categories on the menu at Seng Luangrath’s Laotian restaurant is titled Let’s Go to the Jungle, and you sense the tour guide leading her wide-eyed newbies on a far-flung adventure in offering so many chili-stoked preparations of offal: You want authentic? Okay, you asked for it! To Luangrath’s credit, she hasn’t dumbed down her cuisine; the result is some of the most exciting cooking in the area at the moment—sometimes sharp (a sour soup with tamarind), sometimes smoky (tender strips of sun-dried beef), often fiery, at times all of the above.
Cuisine: Laotian
Where you can get it: 3462 14th St., NW; 202-387-5426
Also good: Grilled pork necks; grilled salmon with curry; koi, a kind of Laotian ceviche.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
