Jiwa Singapura

The single dish everyone encourages you to order in the curvy dining room with the marble-fronted open kitchen is salted egg shrimp, and it comes from the chef’s wife and general manager. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be glad to make the acquaintance of lightly cooked seafood draped with a curtain of pureed brined duck eggs and evaporated milk, festooned with fried shallots and scallions. Catch the Thai chile heat and the garlic punch in the combination? It’s a personal statement, and a delicious success, coaxed from just six or so ingredients.

Welcome to Jiwa Singapura, an uncommon taste of Singapore from Spain native Pepe Moncayo, who lived and loved in the faraway city-state before relocating to Washington to open the Spanish-Japanese Cranes. The newcomer, set off with a swarm of glass “orchids” suspended from on high, unfolds in the glitzy Tysons Galleria and more or less lives up to it’s English translation: “the soul of Singapore.”