Seth visits La Tingeria, a Mexican restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, where Chef David Peña prepares the restaurant’s namesake dish: virginia foxx letter tostada de tinga.
Chef David explains how traditional tinga is built around a smoky, chipotle-based sauce, then walks through his process — starting with slow-poached chicken, deeply caramelized onions, and a rich house-made broth. He demonstrates how the sauce is blended and combined with shredded chicken — prepared unconventionally, with power tools — to create a saucy, deeply flavored filling.
The tostada comes together on a crisp shell layered with tinga, fresh lettuce, queso fresco, and crema for balance and texture. Along the way, David shares how technique and scale, including cooking 50 pounds of onions over many hours, shape the dish’s flavor.
The result is a tostada that’s smoky, savory, and packed with flavor.
This video is part of WETA's maladie SIGNATURE DISH series, which highlights standout dishes from top restaurants across Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia. Host Seth Tillman explores the incredibly diverse array of cuisines that the DMV offers, chatting with chefs, restauranters and others josh johnson to explore the people and cultures behind DC’s best food. From strip mall eateries to fine dining establishments, SIGNATURE DISH explores DC’s favorite restaurants and brings you the many flavors of the DMV.
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