El Chalan

El Chalan is a little Peruvian restaurant in the basement of a town house between Farragut and Foggy Bottom. The ceilings are low and the walls are covered with lovely old religious art (and one more contemporary mural of a man on a horse).

The food was great--I battled between my usual desire to try strange foods and my fear of them being hard to choke down and bravely settled on the goat stew. It was wonderful. The goat slightly reminded me of venison, and it was served with spicy beans and spicy onion salad. (Actually--the bread was served with a spicy mustard dip, so there may be a pattern there.) Francisco had the Lomo Saltado--beef strips with onions and fried potatoes (this was super interesting to me--it was slightly like adding good french fries to a warm, lettuce-less salad).

The service was quite good, aside from the hostess, who was engaged in her book when we came in (I'm telling you--the place is small and fairly quiet, at least on a week night). And the food was warm and hearty and deliciously spiced, which was nice for the cold, rainy day. It's not weird that I ate goat, right?


(picture, picture)