Ethiopian cuisine
Ethiopian food is a D.C. staple, owing to the city's large Ethiopian community, and indeed, this is one of the best cities in the world in which to try the cuisine. For the uninitiated, Ethiopian food is a wild ride of spicy stewed and sautéed meats and vegetables served atop a plate covered with a spongy bread injera. You eat the dishes with your hands, using an extra plate of injera as your sole "utensil"ârip off a piece of the injera and use it to pick up your food. It's proper in Ethiopia to use only the tips of your fingers in this exercise, and with good reason: you'll have a messy meal otherwise. It's also perfectly proper to feed your date, making this a fun cuisine if you know your date well.Without a doubt, the best places to try Ethiopian food are in Shaw, which includes D.C.'s own Little Ethiopia.
Washington has a little bit of everything, from really good inexpensive ethnic takeout no problem getting Ethiopian or Afghan or Jamaican food here to high-dollar lobbyist-fueled places that will cause your credit card to burst into flames. Most of the high end cuisine is available downtown in the West End and East End, in Georgetown, and especially in Dupont Circleâoffering dining experiences ranging from steakhouses packed with powerful suits to a science-powered, six-seat restaurant offering a $120, 30-course meal.
For cheaper dining, there are endless options scattered around the city. The two most notable "ethnic" enclaves include wonderful Ethiopian food in Little Ethiopia and some solid Chinese in what remains of D.C.'s disappearing Chinatown. Salvadoran cuisine is near-ubiquitous throughout the northern reaches of the city, with an unbelievable concentration of pupuserÃas in Columbia Heights. Pupusas are thick corn tortillas stuffed with cheese, optionally fried pork, refried beans, or all sorts of other things, then topped with a tart cabbage salad and an Italianesque red sauce. But truly, you can find just about any cuisine you want in this city if you look for itâD.C.'s international might draws representatives from all corners of the globe, and they all need ex-pat cafes and restaurants to haunt. A few cuisines seem to be missing notably Southeast Asian & Korean, but they are just across the D.C. borders in Maryland and Virginia.
But despite featuring cuisines from all over the world, D.C. seems to lack a cuisine of its own. The city, realizing this, went through a brief period of soul-searching, wondering why it lacked any unique regional culinary traditions, and realized that it indeed has one: the D.C. hot dog stand. They're everywhere, especially around the Mall, and they sell the unique-to-D.C. smoked half-beef, half-pork sausages appropriately named half-smokes. They have a firm "snap" when you bite into one, are served on a hot dog bun, and are often topped with chili. Most hot dog vendors are mere shells of the half-smoke greatness served out of WWII-era aluminum shacks. If you want a true, quality half-smoke, you should visit Ben's Chili Bowl on U St, which is universally understood to serve the best.
Cupcake fever has hit the District in recent years, first as a local craze, and now a national one fueled by pilgrims lured by shows like Cupcake Wars and DC Cupcakes. The star of the latter show, Georgetown Cupcakes has lines running around the block, with patrons coming from throughout the city and now the whole country. Other cupcakeries that do not have their own shows, however, easily give Georgetown Cupcakes a run for their money in terms of quality. If you're in Georgetown and not up to the lines, try the delicious Baked & Wired or LA transplant Sprinkles instead. If you're downtown, hit the Red Velvet Cupcakery for some of the best little sweet muffins in the city.
