Well, it was my first stumble across the latest Indian food truck to hit DC's streets earlier today, but the owners of Kebatik said they've been out and around for a couple of weeks. The nondescript red truck with no name has 4 menu items:
Standing outside the window, you can see the chicken shawarma roasting on it's spit, and it looked awesome, though I opted to try the chicken biryani instead. While the rice was well cooked and nicely flavored as rice, there were some really large pieces of several spices which were unpleasant to bite in to ... chunks of hard cinnamon and whole, pretty aggressive caraway seeds. Right or wrong from traditional biryani, I was also expecting "chunks" of chicken running through the rice, more cubed or shredded, but this was two roasted chicken legs with the rice piled on top. A well of "gravy" was served in one of the smaller pockets of the takeout container, which, when coupled with the mint and hot sauces also served on the side, summed up everything to make a pretty decent dish. (The gravy had a stray shrimp, presumably from the curry; let's just say I am unlikely to be ordering that in the future.)
The simple salad on the side left a lot to be desired, however. I think the greens were washed and then sat heavy for quite a while as they had a texture and taste that really failed.
Next time I'll probably ask if I can have the shawarma chicken in biryani rice, and I think that will be a real winner. Nice, engaging folks, but only 3 honks for my first time.
I also gave Fojol Brothers of Volathai another try, ordering a dingo bite of Beef Massaman. It's a coconut-based curry, a little similar to Panang, with beef and potatoes. While I wasn't in love with my first visit, I'm much more optimistic after this experience. The massaman will be my Thai "BB Gun" -- with the Fojols, that's a double buttered chicken from Merlindia, a double beef berbere from Benethopia, and now will be a double beef massaman from Volathai. (While I can actually order that way at the first two, we'll have to see if the same will work at here...)
