Rainbow

Ah, bliss. Everything had a really nice flavourful heat to it, which was nicely counterbalanced by the side starches.

I started out with a chicken patty, which could have used more spice. Not greasy at all, as ebeth noted- and the chicken was mixed with some starch to give it body, but which also made it bland.

Next out of the kitchen was ebeth’s peanut butter soup, which had good kick. Peanut isn’t really something I crave, but I still kept stealing bits of ebeth’s soup when she wasn’t looking. The fufu on its own is uninspiring, but as a conveyance for stew it rocks. Slightly tacky and bland [and unfortunately similar in taste to reconsituted potato flakes], a generous pinch rolls nicely against the fingers and dunks into the stew... yes, i licked my fingers afterwards.

The regular goat stew had a more immediate heat, and I liked the taste of it more than the peanut. [personal preferance; from what I observed of other patrons, the peanut is a perennial favourite.] I really really loved this. I didn’t think it would be possible to be happier, and then my own dish finally came out. The jollof rice was wonderful. I got it with fish in a spicy tomato stew... and I ate every damn bit. No sharing. [Strategic advantage: everyone else was so full they couldn’t bring themselves to try more, and I was content that way.] The fish had a more complex heat to it- the taste hit me before the burn, which was nice. Only caveat is that the fish is full of bristly bones- some of which crunch nicely and go down before I even noticed, but the others were just difficult to pick around. But I persevered. The skin was crispy and perfect, the fish was tender and juicy, and I was happy.

Good times. It had been way too long since I’d had a good spicy goat stew. Rainbow fixed us right up.

I have a knee-jerk reaction against counter service restaurants, but the moment I walked into Rainbow in Olde Towne (yech) Gaithersburg I knew something was different. Took me a few moments to figure out — it’s clean. Nice, tidy, bright, no dust or grease. Tables clean, floors clean. Okay then!

Anyway, the food was nice, tidy, and bright too. We sampled alot of different dishes, and everything was well seasoned and well-prepared. The beef and chicken patties were very similar to what you’d find at a Caribbean restaurant, but possibly the least greasy ones I’ve ever had. A chicken kabob appetizer was just three bites of delicious peppery white meat. Jollof rice had a nice punch of tomato and spices. The odd-sounding peanut butter soup is served with your choice of chicken, goat, or fish; I had the goat, and it was great — mostly boneless with very little fat but bold-flavored and spicy hot nonetheless. The soup is served with plantain fufu, which was bland and starchy, tasting more of instant mashed-potato flakes than anything else, but pull off chunks of fufu and dunk it in your soup and you’re in another world... or at least on another continent.

I suspect Shields and Kobi will be logging in soon to review, so I’ll leave it to them to describe their dishes. But they left smiling, too.

A few excerpts from the menu (verbatim):

Banku and Tilapia... Fresh cooked Corn Meal served w/ spiced up baked tilapia served with blended fresh tomato, pepper, onions and some spices.

Banku and Okra Stew... Fresh cooked corn meal served w/ fresh cooked okra stew with beef, goat, or fish.

Fufu w/ Goat or Beef Soup... Plantain Fufu served with soup cooked with spiced up goat meat.

...and so on. Oh, and one other thing — the dishes were brought out one or two at a time, with long pauses in between, giving me the distinct impression that one woman is back there cooking one dish at a time. In a true table service restaurant this would be annoying. Here it just added to the ambience.

I think this place is a keeper.