By Michael McCarthy By Michael McCarthy | May 16, 2024 | Food & Drink, Feature,
MITA offers an ambitious vegan-centric journey through Latin America.
The arepas course includes three dipping sauces: guasacaca, chontaduro butter and sour cream made with cashews, hearts of palm and chiles.
Culinary ambition is thrilling to watch. It veers toward unexpected places and often delivers tastes never encountered. This is the mission of Miguel Guerra and Tatiana Mora, the former chefs behind Michelin-starred El Cielo in Union Market District and the renowned Latin American Serenata at La Cosecha Market. The recently opened MITA also draws on the duo’s Latin American heritage with a 14-course, vegan-centric tasting menu that presents local ingredients in unexpected and dramatic ways.
Venezuelan designer Valentina Story created the aesthetic in the cozy and relaxed V Street restaurant, which hints at the show guests will encounter. The staff wears white shirts and blouses and guides guests into a dining room with an open kitchen, flower-shaped chandeliers from CB2 (cb2.com), wood tables, ivory-colored floors and comfy, ergonomic chairs. The tableware from Spanish-based Cookplay (cookplay.eu) is now the prettiest in the city.
The first course is candy crafted from mango, tamarind gelee and tajin.
“Our culinary journey mirrors our deep love and passion for food,” says Mora. “As the creators of this gastronomic venture, we aspire to bring our customers an experience that resonates with our genuine desire to nourish not just the body but the soul.”
Course one sets the tone as a waitstaff member delivers a small piece of candy atop a smoking stone pedestal. The candy—crafted from mango, tamarind gelee and tajin—is wrapped in rice paper. I pop the opener in my mouth (wrapper and all) and savor the taste with a glass of pinot from an impressive list of Latin vineyards. The courses that follow include five kinds of mini arepas (from plantain to yuca) with three dipping sauces that transform the unleavened patties into miracles of taste. Each sauce carries a punch: guasacaca (a Venezuelan guacamole), chontaduro butter (also known as peach palm fruit and grows in Central and South America), and sour cream made with cashews, heart of palm and chiles.
Asado negro terrine
My waiter approaches the table with a small glass-enclosed box holding cash offerings, trinkets and uncooked beans inside. On top of the box are yucca and mole on a bitesize chip. It’s a Peruvian ritual, as Andean indigenous cultures believe in giving back to Mother Earth and placing valuables inside the small case. It’s beautiful, and the soft yucca and mole merge into a tangy bite.
Other standout courses include watermelon crudo, mushroom broth soup (the waitstaff pour the savory broth at the table) and shiitake mushrooms atop barley and peas resting in banana puree. Another course deserving a standing O is the small crispy kale fajita. The kitchen team tucks soy-marinated acorn squash, mole verde, pickled red onions and huitlacoche inside housemade hoja-santa-pressed tortillas (with slight pepper and nutmegs notes) and tops the delicate shells with crispy kale.
The final course, a petit four made with coconut caramel, dulce de leche and Maldon salt, sits atop a framed artwork by Columbian artist Fernando Botero.
Desserts are no afterthoughts here, with Salar Uyuni (dubbed after the Bolivian flat), an ice cream created with chirimoya (an Andean tropical fruit) mingling with gel comprised of Singani (a Bolivian spirit), yucca and api morado. The sweet crescendo is a petit four (coconut caramel, dulce de leche and Maldon salt) conveyed on a framed work of art by Columbian figurative artist Fernando Botero. It’s an unexpected flourish to cap a tasting tour filled with happy plot twists. 804 V St. NW, 202.929.7792,mitadc.com, @mita_dc
Photography by: REY LOPEZ