Eating In Translation

Habesha Market & Restaurant

Breakfast is a more intimate meal than lunch or dinner, and a breakfast menu can be a strong sign of connection with an emigre population. This morning, my plate was crowded with beef stew fir fir, featuring large shreds of injera soaked in the spicy, chunky stew called sega wat; kinche, steamed cracked wheat; and kita fir fir (aka chechebsa), broken-up berbere-laced flatbread, also typically made from wheat. With the addition of scrambled egg and (out of frame) two small French rolls, it was an Ethiopian jumbo breakfast combo.

Another sign of connection, spotted, after a previous breakfast, among the take-ones by the door: the local Ethiopian yellow pages.

Habesha Market & Restaurant
1919 9th St. N.W. (T-U Sts.), Washington, D.C.
202-232-1919
www.HabeshaMarket.com
(From a visit in late winter)

Market Lunch

Rockfish are not one fish. The name describes many different species from around the world that share the habit of hiding you-know-where. Order rockfish in the Mid-Atlantic, however, and almost certainly you'll be served the state fish of Maryland and the state saltwater fish of Virginia, striped bass. Above: on ice at Southern Maryland Seafood, a supplier of Market Lunch with a retail counter just across the aisle. Below: lightly fried with eggs and grits.

Market Lunch
225 7th St. S.E. (near C St. S.E., inside Eastern Market), Washington, D.C.
202-547-8444
www.MarketLunchDC.com
Open for breakfast and lunch, Tuesday through Sunday; rockfish only during weekend brunch
(From a visit in late winter)

District Doughnut

As the ornament suggests, more salty than sweet: a caramel chocolate pretzel doughnut.

District Doughnut
Inside Union Market, 1309 5th St. N.E. (at Neal Pl.), Washington, D.C.
(one of several locations)
www.DistrictDoughnut.com
(From a visit in late winter)

Dorsch's White Cross Bakery

The terra cotta decoration in the pediment, which dates from 1915, is the most visible sign of this building's original tenant. Dorsch's White Cross Bakery, originally a small neighborhood business whose name and logo were a response to turn-of-the-century concerns about food sanitation, had become one of the city's largest bakeries when Peter M. Dorsch sold it, in 1936, to the Continental Baking Co.

Continental, maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess Cakes, operated here until sometime in the 1980s, when the building fell into disuse. The first photo below shows it in 2012, while still vacant; the second photo shows it in 2020, after renovation for office and retail use.

Dorsch's White Cross Bakery
Surviving signage, 641 S St. NW (6th-Wiltberger Sts.), Washington D.C.

Watermelon House

Or, how to make do when the house paint doesn't turn out quite the color you expected. Also shown: kiwi and pineapple mini-murals, added later along the alley.

Watermelon House (Wade Wilson and Robert Banaszak, 2007)
1112 Q St. NW (11th-12th Sts.), Washington, D.C.
www.Facebook.com/WatermelonHouseDC

Chinatown crosswalk

H St. NW at 8th St., Washington, D.C.

Frutas: mango, piña, sandia

Mural (detail; various artists of the local Latin American Youth Center, date unknown)
Outside Tubman Elementary School, 11th St. NW between Kenyon and Irving Sts., Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C.
Read more about the Columbia Heights neighbohood on DCist

Toki Underground

Only a modest blue logo marks the door of Toki Underground, which despite the name sits above a bar, up a narrow, steep flight of stairs. Long waits and a full house are, reportedly, not uncommon at this tiny ramen-ya, and seating is snug. I was squeezed in at the slender counter along one side wall, and only on withdrawing, after my meal, did I see that the footrests underneath are a series of skateboard decks. Between the passing bodies of incoming diners I saw that other decks, brightly colored and split lengthwise, form the balustrade where the stairs rise to the second floor.

Which is to say that there's little opportunity to check out the decor, or the crowd, or — unless you land one of the prized seats surrounding the open kitchen — even to see who's ordering what. I caught a look only at the dishes to my immediate left and right. Just as well: My own bowl arrived in very short order. The Toki classic ($11), which employs a tonkotsu, or "pork bone," broth, is dressed with red pickled ginger, sesame, scallions, and nori. More-substantive ingredients include straight, thin noodles, chasu pulled pork, a soft egg, and seasonal vegetables — this day, dark green bitter rolls of Chinese mustard greens.

Tonkotsu ramen is especially associated with the Hakata ward of Fukuoka, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, and under the name "Hakata ramen" is regarded as a major regional variation. Toki's chef was born in Taiwan, and his dishes were "inspired" (says the menu) by his "experience at a Hakata ramen shop in Taipei," so his dishes have elsewhere been described as a fusion of Japanese and Taiwanese influences. This particular ramen has been dubbed "Hakata style," but I'm not enough of a ramen aficionado to point out the distinctions. I am enough of an aficionado to drain my bowl.

Toki Underground
1234 H St. N.E. (12th-13th Sts.), Washington, D.C.
443-857-0347
www.TokiUnderground.com
Closed Sunday
(From an Easter 2013 visit)

Ben's Chili Bowl

Ben's rendition of the chili half-smoke ($5.70), featuring a coarsely ground quarter-pound sausage, equal parts beef and pork, is the most celebrated in the District. But what the hell is a half-smoke? There's no one firm definition.

Neither is there consensus on how to eat one without dribbling chili in all the wrong places. Some rely on knife and fork. Others may heed an instructional essay by George Washington University's Bernard Demczuk; "Bernie's Dog Bite Method" proceeds in five steps, from positioning, to grip, to lift, to entry, to bite. Dr. Demczuk kindly inscribed a copy for me, but my half-smoke was already at hand, and so I had to rely on my own years of training. If I was going to drip chili, I'd drip it onto those potato chips.

Ben's Chili Bowl
1213 U St. N.W. (12th-13th Sts.), Washington, D.C.
202-667-0909
www.BensChiliBowl.com
(From an Easter 2013 visit)

Busboys and Poets

"Mekhleme" ($11), the menu tells us, is an "Iraqi 'corned beef' hash" that also includes tomato, onions, and potatoes, all topped by two poached eggs. The Middle East is no stranger to hash, but even when it's the meaty sort, generally hash has been the butt of a joke. (An older generation has similar feelings about creamed chipped beef on toast.)

All online citations that I've found, however, connect "mekhleme" only with Busboys and Poets, generally with favorable notices. (Add mine.) But as to the origin and significance of the name, and as to whether mekhleme is a traditional Iraqi dish or a more recent Iraqi-American invention, I still can't say. (Update: See the comments below.)

Busboys and Poets
1025 5th St. N.W. (K-L Sts.), Washington, D.C.
(one of several locations)
202-789-2227
www.BusboysAndPoets.com
(From an Easter 2013 visit)