Rice is cool-hot: Excellent food, simple elegance

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

Good things do come in small packages. Rice, on the booming 14th Street corridor, just above Q Street NW, is small, sleek and elegant in its simplicity.

A discreet brass plaque on the gray brick wall at No. 1608 announces the restaurant. (You might think it a Boston investment bank). A single window gives a glimpse of the narrow room with a small bar at the end of a warm brick wall, the old bricks in differing shades of red. A long wall at right is the palest of greens. The bare wooden tables are adorned with small pots of flowers. It's cool and contemporary -- a nice contrast to the heat of much of the excellent cooking.

The menu is divided into three categories: Rice specialties, authentic Thai, and healthy green, each subdivided into soups, appetizers and entrees. Mixing and matching is easy.

The kitchen is in the talented hands of chef Phannarai Promprasert, formerly of Busara above Georgetown, who is not afraid of turning up the heat. Many of Rice's dishes measure up to genuine Bangkok spiciness -- well, almost -- and there's joy in the fire.

The appetizers are extraordinary. The spring rolls, from the "healthy" menu, are far from usual: They're shaped like Turkish cigars, only longer and thinner, stuffed with a smooth taro root and carrot puree and fried to a crisp turn. Chicken satay is akin to that served in most Thai restaurants, but these small skewers are tender and explode with flavor. They are accompanied by two sauces, sweet and sour and a spicier one instead of the traditional peanut version.

A small boat of crabmeat, misnamed "dip," sails fresh and highly spiced onto the table, with the heat beautifully balanced by cool leaves of baby romaine in which to wrap the crab. A shrimp-and-grapefruit salad is equally fine: Three large grilled shrimp are served warm atop a mixture of red onions, green onions, chili peppers and spices. Slices of pink grapefruit, threads of crispy coconut and the juice of the fruit combine with the shrimp in an exotic starter dish that combines into a surprising, happy marriage.

Seasonal fruit salad is listed as an appetizer, but it's a refreshing accompaniment to the hotter dishes. The salad -- at present a combination of ripe pineapple, grapes and apples -- is served in a mild garlic-and-chili dressing that enhances the flavor of the fruit while mitigating its sweetness.

Chiang Mai pork sausage is mild and sophisticated. Served at room temperature, it is subtle and pleasant, rich in herbs with none of the fire of the traditional Thai dishes.

Grilled New York steak doesn't sound very Thai, but the dish, leading the main courses, is sensational. Medium rare and thinly sliced, the steak has been marinated in a spicy sauce and grilled to a tender and juicy turn, bursting with extraordinary flavor.