■ Beef kebab: The kubbideh kebab at Shamshiry—melt-in-your-mouth minced spiced beef with hot buttered long-grain rice.
■ Chicken kebab: The wonderfully tender, juicy bone-in chicken at Ravi Kabob.
■ Tofu: Fried tofu with chili and fried basil at Bangkok 54—a dish that could make a hardened carnivore think about not eating meat.
■ Black beans: Pork-laden black beans laced with roasted green peppers and fluffy, oiled white rice at Cuba de Ayer.
■ Ethiopian dish: Yebeg wat, a lush and peppery lamb stew at Etete.
■ Korean barbecue dish: Crisp-edged grilled pork belly at Gom Ba Woo.
■ Pupusas: The thick, cheesy, greaseless griddle cakes at Irene’s Pupusas III.
■ Pork sandwich: The smoky pulled-pork sandwich, splashed with Mama Sophie’s red sauce and topped with creamy slaw, at Johnny Boy’s Ribs.
■ Baba ghanoush: The smoky, fluffy eggplant purée at Lebanese Butcher, which also has the area’s best kibbeh—lightly fried and gently spiced oblong meat patties.
■ Vietnamese pork dish: The slightly charred grilled pork on skewers with vermicelli noodles and forests of mint and cilantro at Minh’s.
■ Vietnamese seafood dish: Heads-on prawns, plump and full of pop, in sizzling coconut juice at Viet Royale.
■ Spring rolls: Vietnamese sausage rolls at Tay Do, tight bundles of warm and cool, crunchy and soft, fragrant and savory.
■ Crispy whole fish: The whole fish, scored and deep-fried until the skin turns crunchy, in a creamy red curry at Ruan Thai.
■ Tres leches cake: The white square of sponge cake, soaked in three milks but still intact, at La Flor de la Canela.
■ Butter Chicken: The hunks of tandoori chicken in a curry full of sharp, tomatoey tang at Bombay.
■ Taco: Shreds of slow-cooked goat meat drenched in a sweet and spicy guajillo-chili sauce and tucked into a two-ply corn tortilla at Taqueria Distrito Federal.
■ Wings: The juicy, mouth-tingling drumettes at Bombay Curry Company.
■ Aushak: The delicate house-made pastas filled with scallions and blanketed with meat sauce and dollops of yogurt at Faryab.
■ Vegetarian Indian curries: Channa batura—a fry bread the size of a sombrero with a rich, cinnamon-spiked chickpea curry—and eggplant, the purple veggie blistered in oil and swabbed in a gravy the color of a sunset, at Saravana Palace. Its fluffy uttappam, fired up with green chilies and mellowed with coconut chutney sambar, is also the area’s best Indian-style pancake.
■ Fried chicken: The crispy, hot-from-the-oil wings at Oohhs & Aahhs.
■ Dosa: Thin, hot, crunchy, and as big as a rolled blueprint, it’s the Special Rava Masala Dosai at Woodlands.
■ Nordic dish: Janssen’s Temptation at Domku—Sweden’s answer to scalloped potatoes, with anchovies, dill, and cream all folded into the mix.
■ Pizza: The Margherita at 2 Amys: tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil—and bliss.
■ Green-papaya salad: The rendition at Huong Que has just the right amount of lime and nuoc nam and is topped with shreds of pork and plump pink shrimp.
■ Peking duck: The lacquered, crisp-skinned version at Mark’s Duck House, roasted whole and carved just before serving.
■ Doughnuts: The lemon zest and sugar-dusted bomboloni—Italian-style doughnuts—at Bebo Trattoria are a reminder of chef Roberto Donna’s much fancier Laboratorio del Galileo.
■ Empanadas: The calzone-size half-moon pastries filled with cheese and diced jalapeños at Llajtaymanta.
■ Fries: The skinny-cut potatoes double-fried in olive oil and served with thick yogurt for dipping at Zaytinya give a shout-out to Greek culinarian Aglaia Kremezi—a fitting tribute.
■ Po’boy: Breadline’s brioche roll and vinegary cabbage slaw might be nontraditional, but they’re a perfect foil for the fried oysters doused with tangy hot sauce.
■ Pecan pie: The sweet but not cloying, rich but not heavy, darkly toasted wedge at Dixie Bones.
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.
