Washington D.C -- a museum cafeteria (incredibly)

Normally, I consider museum cafeterias a last resort,to be avoided if at all possible. I was consequently blown over by the cafeteria at the new National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, the latest addition to the museum mall. There was along line in front of the cafeteria (not necessarily a good sign! this can just mean a long wait for a bad lunch), but the way the cafeteria is organized meant that the wait turned out to be minimal. There are five different stations, each representing a different region: Northern Woodlands, Great Plains, Northwest Coast, MesoAmerica, and South America, so that it is possible to eat Latin American as well as native North American food. You can go from one station to the other, and pick an hors d'oeuvre or soup in one, an entree in another, and a dessert in a third. The menu changes seasonally. When we were there, this included, for example, pumpkin soup (Northern Woodlands) or Dungness Crab soup (Northwest Coast); wild rice or wild green salad; tamales; arepas; frijoles; pork in mole; roast venison and buffalo; pumpkin fry bread; smoked or grilled salmon; bread pudding in maple syrup .. and I forget many others. Drinks included sweet hibiscus flower (sorrel or agua de jamaica); Mexican chocolate, and (not very native American) coffee.
Admittedly, some of the dishes were more "authentic" than others, which were clearly adapted to the tastes of the clientele. This said, the ingredients were impeccably fresh, the preparation careful, and everything we had was tasty and most quite out of the ordinary (well, not if one judges by LTH standards.) But this is definitely an original option -- where else can one get native American food outside of pow wows in the midwest or the east coast? and a great culinary addition to DC -- and to museum cafeterias! If only the example caught on ...

Very interesting, thanks. The entire Mall area in DC has always been a difficult place to find a decent meal. When I lived in DC, my go-to lunch whenever I was anywhere near the Mall or Capitol Hill was the Library of Congress cafeteria at the top of the newest LOC building (Madison building, I believe.) It was always my secret tip for tourists visiting our nation's capitol.

Sounds like we have a welcome addition at the other end of the Mall. Thanks for the info.

Best,
Michael