Just to the right of the entrance of the Paramount apartment building in Crystal City, I spied a handwritten sign in Chinese on the window. Upon entering, the first thing I noticed was a Kimball piano… after that a few cafeteria tables with chairs and then a counter and beyond that a market.
At the counter there was a small menu, including Chinese pork burgers - and I made one of my favorite discoveries ever in the DC area. No kidding.
Everything about this was awesome. Not Xian style with cumin and red pepper. The proprietress, Lillian, is from Zhuhai, “walking distance” to Macau. So the flavor is quite different. It was a large pile of very moist chopped pork and onion with small green chilies to give it a nice buzz. All scooped into a crispy, flaky bun. You can also order it in a soft bun, like they serve it in Xian.
At $8 it is substantial and thoroughly delicious.
Lillian also taught me how to say ‘pretty’ in Chinese so I could call her that, and she got a big laugh out of her own joke. I thought it was funny too. But anyone who makes a killer rou jia mo like that could be considered a viable romantic partner.
It looks like the place is called the Paramount Cafe and if the recent Yelp reviews are to be believed, it previously served a variety of American sandwiches made with Boar’s Head meats, but they found the sandwiches to be “too hard on their bottom line” and discontinued them. Kicking out bland Boar’s Head sandwiches for a Chinese regional food I’ve never heard of sounds like a major improvement.
