Good Eats at the National Museum of the American Indian

National Museum of the American Indian

By Elisabeth Grant

There are lots of excellent reasons to visit the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Reasons that begin on the exterior, with its unique right-angle free architecture, to what lays inside, from the Rasmuson Theater, with its dances and storytelling, to the various floors that contain the museum’s 825,000 art and artifact items. Any or all of these features could lead me to suggest you check out the National Museum of the American Indian, but that’s not why I think you should go. I think you should go for the cafeteria.

Say what?! Yes, I know the sharp memories the word “cafeteria” elicits. Memories of milk cartons, rectangular pizzas, hairnets, and mystery meats. But put those memories aside. Put even the word cafeteria aside, and embrace the Mitsitam Cafe (“Mitsitam” means “Let’s Eat,” in the language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples, according to the NMAI web site). At the cafe you will find lunch trays and lines to the cashier, but you will also find yucca fries with lime and cilantro, blue corn bread, buffalo chili on fry bread, and grilled venison flank steak. This is not your average cafeteria.

The NMAI’s Mitsitam Cafe features “indigenous cuisines of the Americas” and is split up by region into 5 serving station, each with its own unique and traditonal options. The stations include:

1. Northern Woodlands - featuring dishes like turtle chowder, honey cured duck, and corn meal crusted fried frog legs
2. South America – offering Peruvian chicken, paspusas, and guava tapioca pudding
3. Northwest Coast – serving up cedar-plank salmon, fiddle-head fern salad, and mussles in seaweed broth
4. Meso America – including options like pulled pork, yellow corn tacos, and churros
5. Great Plains – presenting buffalo chili, grilled chipotle chicken tacos, and mesquite pinon cookies

Selection of food at the Mitsitam Cafe

The options listed above are only a few of the many many delicious main dishes, sides, appetizers, desserts, and drinks offered. Check out a more thorough list in this Spring Menu PDF from the cafe, though expect some additions and deletions from the menu when you visit. While some of this food may be out of some visitors’ comfort zones, there are plenty of options that will please even the pickiest of eaters (who doesn’t love the classic taco?). Federal employees will also be pleased when they learn that just by showing their government badge they’ll received 10 percent off their meal.

So yes, definitely visit the National Museum of the American Indian for the rich cultural (and free) experience it offers. But also consider just popping in for a bite.