Casa Lebrato

What makes Casa Lebrato special for me is that it offers many of the hard to find ingredients used in West African, particularly Liberian Cuisine. From dried bony fish to dehydrated stock fish to smoked herring as well as salted cod, this place makes it possible for me to be transported back to the cuisine of my formative years. Things like canned palm butter sauce, frozen ground cassava leaves, frozen ground bitter leaves, eddoes, yams, palm oil, gari (farina) habanero peppers, canned bitter balls and fresh cassava (yucca or manioc) can be found almost all the time. The list is endless.
I love this store and even though I’ve recently moved to Baltimore (still work in DC), I make a trip here regularly to get the oh so special ingredient that you’ll never find at Whole Foods, or Harris Teeter. Check it out former USAID, Embassy and Peace Corps workers if you have experience with Liberian Cuisine and want a trip down memory lane!

This place is everything you want out of a corner bodega-​type store. The prices are reasonable even for things like eggs which are usually grossly overpriced at corner stores. The two ladies that work here are so extremely friendly. Also they recently started stocking beer here. Nothing amazing, but it’s still nice to have another option.

Safeway line too long and too lazy to walk a block to the CVS in Adams Morgan? Go half way and goto Casa Lebrato. The owner is a little Korean lady who seems to be trilingual (english, korean, and spanish). They have a variety of everything, cigarettes, juice, fruit, vegetables, canned goods… and rice. No Korean rice though, but jasmine rice will do.
A good place to get little something when you realize you’re missing an ingredient while making dinner.

Located just beyond the Safeway on Columbia, this is another one of those places that advertises ten different kinds of international calling cards in the window, indicating that it serves a mostly foreign clientele. Choose «El Viajero» calling card if you want the best rates.
I go to this store for their selection of tasty, fat-​saturated breads — «pan de arroz», etc. There is also a deli of sorts in back, although I’ve never seen it staffed by anyone they sell a variety of freeze-​dried fish… you can also stock up on those religious good-​luck candles that come in glass cylinders and feature the paintings of various saints. Casa Lebrato es su casa.