Eating In Translation

La Escudilla

Sopa de kaq ik ($8.99) is a Guatemalan specialty — some call it the national dish — that dates from pre-Columbian times. In Q'eqchi', a Mayan language still spoken today, "kaq ik" means "red chili pepper," and indeed this soup has a reddish cast, likely from annatto, and a spicy profile with smoky undertones.

Traditionally it features turkey. At La Escudilla, the owners (who serve Mexican and Salvadorean dishes as well as the fare of their first home) customarily prepare kaq ik with chicken. On the side are soft, fat tortillas, as well as a helping of rice that's tinted and flavored by chicken broth.

La Escudilla
8484 Piney Branch Rd. (at Flower Ave.), Silver Spring, Maryland
301-495-5755

Veronica's Bakery & Cafe

The names of Latin American pastries are often puzzling.

"The world's breakfast," Quaker Oats

Surviving signage on M St. N.W. near 31st St. N.W., Washington, D.C.

Oohh's and Aahh's

Grits are not always gritty and, when prepared without cheese, not necessarily thick. These, further moistened and deeply flavored by fried peppers and onions and a dozen or so spicy grilled shrimp ($16.95), were almost soupy; I wished I'd had a bigger spoon. Also shown: the stovetop, featuring a surplusage of collard greens.

Oohh's and Aahh's
1005 U St. N.W. (10th-11th Sts. N.W.), Washington D.C.
202-667-7142
www.OohhsnAahhs.com

Sumah's West African Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) Sumah's serves the cuisine of Sierra Leone. "Krain krain" is that country's name (one of many assigned in warm climates around the world) for the green leafy vegetable shown on this sampler plate at front left. Though the name "jute" properly belongs to the fibers produced by the plant, you can also find jute leaves, labeled as such, in the freezer cases of better-supplied Asian markets. Some folks find krain krain mucilaginous, like the okra beside it; to me the texture suggested nicely wilted spinach.

Also notable is the mustard yellow puddle of peanut sauce. Many West African kitchens make one, but few such sauces taste so much like liquified peanut butter.

Sumah's West African Restaurant
1727 7th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.
202-462-2516
Closed Sunday

Mulberries

To tell a red mulberry tree from a white mulberry tree, look to the leaves. When ripe, the "edible but messy fruits" of the white mulberry — a naturalized species from Asia that has largely supplanted the native red mulberry, writes Edward Sibley Barnard in New York City Trees — can, in fact, be "white, pink, red, or purple." But while red mulberry leaves are rough on top and hairy below, notes Sibley, white mulberry leaves are smooth on both surfaces, occasionally with hairy veins.

Consensus has it that the fruits of the red mulberry have a fuller flavor, when they can be had. No luck this day, as you can see.

Mulberries
Washington D.C.

Levi's Port Cafe

Basics done right: fried pork chop ($8.95), collard greens, nice-and-loose mac 'n' cheese. A two-chop plate, fried or smothered ($10.95) serves customers not destined for several more meals in succession.

Levi's Port Cafe
1102 8th St. S.E. (near L St. S.E.), Washington, D.C.
202-547-6500
www.LevisSoulFoodCafe.com
Open through early dinnertime Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday

"Drink Coca-Cola, 5¢, it's refreshing"

Senart's Oyster & Chop House
520 8th St. S.E. (Pennsylvania Ave.-E St. S.E.), Washington, D.C.
202-544-1168
www.SenartsDC.com
(Soda prices subject to change)

Mark's Kitchen

In an earlier life the Mill Korean Restaurant, near Columbia University, in New York, was a luncheonette and purveyor of school supplies. Some years ago it began a slow-motion transformation and, for a period of 18 months or so, did business as an odd hybrid of greasy spoon and bibimbap joint.

For more than two decades Korean-American-owned Mark's Kitchen has straddled a similar divide, but on larger, cheerier, and better-ventilated premises. To accompany acorn squash ($9.95), stuffed with barley, spinach, red pepper, spring onion, and mushroom, sweet tea served me just fine. If I'd ordered the steak-and-kimchi omelet, however, I would have missed the sole legacy item on the Mill's menu; Mark's doesn't make a lime rickey.

Also shown: a gingerbread sundae ($5.95). The ice cream and the candied topping are ginger-flavored, too.

Mark's Kitchen
7006 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park, Maryland
301-270-1884
www.MarksKitchen.com

Fruit stand

Wax jambu ($5 per pound) is a member of the Myrtle family; rose apple, wax apple, water apple, Java apple, and bell fruit are colloquial names for multiple species. When I've tried these in Bangkok, Xiamen, and Taipei, they've generally been crisp, and moist if not juicy, but to me the sweetness is almost a trick of the mind; it's more a lack of any balancing tartness.

These Florida-raised specimens don't have the vibrant hue, be it rosy or golden, of the fruits I've enjoyed in the past, and the flavor is correspondingly pale. Perhaps they're not quite ripe.

First noted on Chowhound's regularly updated Chinatown fruit report.

Fruit stand
Canal St. near the southeast corner with Mulberry St., Manhattan