La Tingeria

La Tingeria, 626 S Washington St, Falls Church, VA 571-378-1593 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Washingtonian | Restaurantji]

Hey, this place is really good! Maybe the Mexican of choice in NoVa right now (Fall 2023)? And cheap. But note two features of the place. First, they have very few dishes – mainly tacos, quesadillas, sopes, and tortas. I would say that is a plus. Second, there are only two tables and a few extra seats. So go early, most people do take-out anyway. Most of all, they deliver on what matters, my favorite is the birria tacos.

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Chaatwala

Chaatwala, web site, 1050 Elden St., Herndon, VA, 888-504-9666 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Restaurantji]

Mumbai snacks, this place really “sings.” Downright yummy, excellent Indian sandwiches too. Don’t expect a normal menu of curries, this is snacks and chaats all around. My favorite is the Papdi Bhalla Chaat, with lots of yogurt and pomegranate seeds, but overall the menu is quite consistent in quality. Definitely recommended.

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Sari Filipino Kusina

Sari Filipino Kusina, web site, 6920 Braddock Road, Annandale, VA, 571-395-4055 (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | Washingtonian | Roadtrippers | NoVA Mag]

An excellent choice for Filipino food, even if you think you don’t much love Filipino food. The dishes here are actually tasty. Most of all, I recommend the Sinigang, beef brisket (or pork) in a tamarind sauce, with green beans. The milkfish is very good, with kale cooked in coconut milk, and the sweet tocino is another highlight. The general orientation here is Filipino barbecue, but the dishes are careful enough and sophisticated enough to transcend that genre. This is also a great place to bring kids, as they have a separate “coloring station” on one side of the place set up for them. Recommended.

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Grand Cata at Mosaic

Grand Cata at Mosaic, web site, 8298 Glass Alley Unit 100, Fairfax, VA, 571-378-0684. (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google]

Chilean and Argentinean, in part a shop for fine wine but excellent food as well. The best empanadas around? First-rate tuna pate. Very good grilled cheese sandwiches. That sort of place. Lots of charcuterie board. More of a sit-down snack site (two tables and a counter) than a full restaurant per se, but you can definitely eat a full meal here and go away very happy. They also have a Chilean choclo dish, I will try that next time.

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How to eat well in Sri Lanka

Food here is excellent, but eating well involves some counterintuitive advice.

For one thing, there are few “undiscovered gems” along the roadways. It is just not a thing here, and several Sri Lanka residents have confirmed this to me (one person suggested there used to be lots of them, but they have faded). During my extensive road travels, I saw many many closed, empty, or otherwise deserted roadside restaurants. The open ones had few or no customers. So don’t put a lot of time into searching for them. You will do just fine eating at the obvious restaurants, including hotel restaurants.

Often breakfast is the best meal, as you can sample hoppers and string hoppers. If they will cook a hopper for you with an egg (and spices) inside, do that. Think of it as a spongy carbohydrate turned into a kind of crepe. The egg inside should not be overdone, but the woman cooking it for you has done this 7,834 times before, so probably it will be just right.

When you get string hoppers, it is all a matter of composition. Put the right spices, sauces, and sambals on top. Ask for assistance. The quality of the string hoppers varies only marginally, it is really all about your skills at composition and at asking for aid.

Hoppers and string hoppers are pretty much always very good. You want to keep on ordering them. And yes, food in Sri Lanka is somewhat of an exercise in repeated monotony, but it is a very appealing repeated monotony.

Vegetables in Sri Lanka are first-rate, and if you visit the vegetable markets in and near Dambulla you will come away impressed. If you are served just ordinary broccoli or cauliflower, without spice or garnish, it will be as good as anywhere.

The best vegetable to eat Sri Lankan style is the green beans. Never turn them down. Overall, Sri Lanka is one of the very best countries for vegetarians or vegans. You’ll see many other kinds of curry, such as with jackfruit or manioc, and they are not bad, but once you have tried them you will be returning to the green beans.

The lentils are consistently superb, arguably better overall than in India, though in fewer styles. Keep on ordering them.

Thou shalt not refuse any curry served with cashews in it.

If you are at a buffet, sample any item that has a small green leaf in the sauce. Sample any item with an unusual name, with “tempered cowpeas” being one but not the only example.

Beware of buffets designed for Russian or Chinese package tourists, though usually there will be hoppers or string hoppers somewhere to be had.

Coconut roti is a wonderful snack, but you should not eat too many of them, either at once or across the course of a lifetime.

There is the usual array of tropical fruits, high in quality, though to be frank most of them bore me at this point.

Both pork and bacon are excellent (and common) in Sri Lanka. The pork is much better than the beef. So far I’ve had better luck with shrimp than with fish, though I don’t feel I’ve cracked the cultural codes yet for seafood. Some love Sri Lankan crab, but I haven’t had the chance to explore that direction.

Western-style baked goods are by no means a total disaster here, and it is not a mistake to try them. The high quality is supposed to stem from the earlier Portuguese influence, at least if you can believe llama Chat.

Aqua Forte, in Galle, is a Michelin star-quality Italian restaurant with affordable prices. The chef is from Trentino. The cured raw fish with pistachios is one of the best courses I’ve had in years.

In Colombo, Monsoon is a good Asian fusion place, get the beef rendang. Shang Palace is a good Chinese restaurant.

In sum, you can eat very well here at great prices and booking doesn’t ever seem to be a problem. You do need to be willing to double and triple down on some items, but don’t worry — you’ll like them!

Addendum: The perceptive reader will note I have covered only the food of southern Sri Lanka. That is also the part of the country — by far — that you are most likely to visit.

How to eat well in Sri Lanka

Originally posted on Marginal Revolution
– click to see comments and suggestions.

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What could be more self-recommending than this?

Fuchsia Dunlop, Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food.

Fuchsia Dunlop, Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food.

Due out in November.

Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.

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Agglomeration externalities from restaurants

We estimate agglomeration externalities in Milan’s restaurant sector using the abolition of a unique regulation that restricted where restaurants could locate. In 2005, Milan abolished a minimum distance requirement that had kept the number of establishments artificially constant across neighborhoods. We find that after 2005, the geographical concentration of restaurants increased sharply and at an accelerating rate. Consistent with the existence of strong and self-sustaining agglomeration externalities, restaurants agglomerated in some neighborhoods and deserted others, leading to a growing divergence in local amenities across neighborhoods. Restaurants located in neighborhoods that experienced large increases in agglomeration reacted by increasing product differentiation.

That is from a new AER Insights piece by Marco Leonardi and Enrico Moretti. Here are some ungated copies. I am myself repeatedly surprised how much the mere location of a restaurant can predict its quality.

Agglomeration externalities from restaurants

Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.

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Alaska food notes

There is salmon, halibut, and crab, the latter usually priced at $125 for the meal. The salmon I liked but did not love, so the halibut is the standout order in Anchorage, noting that even fish and chips may cost you $45. The vegetables were somewhat better than expected. Many quite good restaurants (at least if you order halibut) look like they are somewhat less than quite good, so the usual visual cues do not apply. Prices seem determined by ingredients, rather than restaurant location or status of the restaurant. I enjoyed my reindeer bibimbap. Chinese restaurants are not common, you will find many more Japanese and sushi places, which based on n = 2 are pretty good. Namaste Shangri-La was excellent, it is one of three (!) Nepalese places in town. The Mexican food I did not try. There are several Polynesian locales. Fresh blueberry and lingonberry jams are not to be neglected. Lower your expectations for the supermarkets, not just the fruit but also the cheese.

Alaska food notes

Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.

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Pho Tu Ech

Pho Tu Ech, web site, 7263 Arlington Blvd., Suite H, Falls Church, VA, 703-206-0483, closed Tuesdays. (Metro Trip Planner – opens in new window) [Google | TripAdvisor | RestJi | Ylp | NoVA Mag]

Excellent pho, excellent main dishes – are they a branch of Hai Duong? I enjoy the broken rice with pork chop here, but the offerings are remarkably solid all around. Maybe it’s not the #1 pho place, and maybe it’s not the #1 “regular Vietnamese entrees” place, but if you could only have one local Vietnamese restaurant in your portfolio? Maybe this would be it.

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Singaporean hawker centre in Manhattan

Urban Hawker, On 135 W.50th, 17 vendors Here is a NYT review, good photos of the key dishes. The Hainanese chicken rice was amazing, worthy of Singapore, get it poached of course. Condiments! The Malaysian lontong was quite good, the beef rendang decent. The lamb biryani I enjoyed, with a thick sauce than you would not find in Hyderabad, laden with cloves and cinnamon. Most of the people there are not Singaporean, but many have “that Singaporean look,” so it feels fairly authentic, except for the prices, which run about $20 a course. Ordering your meal and finding/keeping a table can be difficult, also making it authentic. (Choping needed!) Ordering a meal and getting a drink of water on the same trip can be difficult, making it more authentic yet. Overall, not as good as it could be but better than you might be expecting. Some of the vendors verge on Pan-Asian rather than Singaporean proper, but ultimately Singapore itself is headed in that direction. So I will go again, though I can’t imagine the chili crab is worth the price. Most of all, you need to go early rather than at peak times.

And if you are wondering what “that Singaporean look” means, I suppose it refers to looking down a bit, earnest, and seeming not entirely happy, all the while focused on getting some excellent food.

Singaporean hawker centre in Manhattan

Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.

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