Holy food!
Have you ever tried Ethiopian food?
My aunt calls it “slop on a sponge”, I call it delicious. 🙂
Tate and I pulled into D.C. yesterday afternoon right on time to meet my “big sister” (neighbor growing up), her husband, and year and a half old Cora at Dukem. Â Like all good Ethiopian restaurants, the atmosphere was tacky, the prices were reasonable, and the food was eaten with our fingers.
We ordered the Vegetarian Supreme with a side middle of beef something-or-other.
17 piles of various veggie goodness!
If you are unfamiliar with the Ethiopian experience, here’s the rundown. Â You usually order a few dishes or a combo meal. Â The dishes are served on a huge injera bread, a giant fermented (like sourdough) pancake made from Teff flour, with a few injera on the side for scooping up the stews and salads. Â If you are careful at scooping your fingers don’t actually touch the dishes and it’s not as messy as it sounds.
The flavors range from spicy to mildly sour with lots of lentils and oily sauces (similar to Indian in many ways). Â It is one of my favorite types of foods to eat out because I have no desire to cook it! The best part is having so many different flavors in one meal and I actually love eating with my fingers.
We left lunch stuffed (and didn’t even finish the tray), in fact I really overeat for the first time in a long time. Â I think the injera expands in your stomach!
Those of you on the East coast may remember that yesterday was a cold one! Â We considered skipping our trip for a minute but we are glad we went because the sun came out mid-afternoon and it was a chilly but lovely day on the Mall.
There were even people playing Ultimate Frisbee in front of the Capital.
YIKES! Talk about a fashion “Don’t”!
The Air and Space Museum, The National Gallery, and The Natural History Museum filled up our afternoon.
My favorite exhibit was the Contemporary Art in The National Gallery.
This one was both Tate and I’s favorite ↓ (it was huge!)
We were a little concerned about which part was “fanny” painted…
It was also fun to see the Hope Diamond at The Natural History Museum
It’s so cool to think about the nearly 400 years of history for this gem!
We hit Ikea on the way to Fredricksburg and YOWZA, that place is insane!  I made it out of there down $124 and with a car full of goodies!
I won an award last night! Â I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow morning. Â For now, have a lovely day!
What a beautiful day! My friend lives just outside of DC & I can’t wait to visit! I didn’t realize you were close to there.
C’ville is 2 hours from DC. It’s a fun city, so much free stuff to do!
I love Ethiopian food! I live in DC and I’ve been to Dukem a few times. Zed’s in Georgetown is also good. You’re right that it’s a great thing to eat out, since you can get so many flavors and spices in one meal, which would be quite a mission to undertake at home. And yes, that bread DEFINITELY expands in your stomach! 🙂
Sounds like you had a great day in DC; the National Gallery is my favorite!
I’ll have to try Zed’s next time! I really wanted to check out Georgetown but Ikea won out for this trip. It was a great day trip though so we will be back soon!
My 5 year old nephew is super adventurous with his eating. On his bday, he always chooses sushi (“She-she” when he was 2)and can work through a menu like nobody’s business! A few weeks ago, he declared that he wanted to try injera. To which he replied, “It tastes like towel. I like it!”
That’s hilarious (“tastes like towel”) and SO awesome that he is an adventurous eater. My 8 year old niece loves sushi too, she used to call it “shoe-she” hehe. She also went through a stage where she would only eat scrambled eggs if they had chard and onions in them!
We had ethiopian for our anniversary! I really like it and had to LOL because your description is very accurate! Hubs…well, he played along but he probably wouldn’t suggest it again.