Hump Day Chomp is a new weekly posting that intends, perhaps unsuccessfully, to make your Hump day a bit less humpy. We’ve found restaurants that are (mostly) cheap, rarely visited by our Georgetown amigos and, above all, pretty freaking good to get you through the week.
I bet you’ve said, “Mmmm I’m craving Ethiopian” about as much as you’ve said, “I need a colonoscopy”, so today’s Hump Day Chomp is written with the intention of changing your mentality. With over 250,000 Ethiopian residents, DC boasts a large number of great Ethiopian restaurants that are cheap, laid-back and Hump Day Chomp-worthy.
I recently visited Dukem, a small Ethiopian restaurant on U St. Corridor. (You can get to U St. by taking the metro to the U Street-Cardozo Metro Station on the green line.) The restaurant is really casual and cozy, and has a chill terrace facing the bustling area. Dukem serves different types of Ethiopian foods, like fitfit and kitfo, as well as God-knows-what for you vegetarians, but their specialty is Ethiopian injera with wat.
Injera is kind of like a spongy crepe that doubles as a plate to serve a variety of meats, cheeses and vegetables. We ordered a platter of warm injera with a colorful combination of different stews that came in less than 10 minutes and was so big it could barely fit the table. The combination platters are about $20, and are enough to feed an average indigenous Guatemalan family, which, for your information, is 5.2 people. All right, maybe it’s enough to feed just 2 or 3 of you, but that’s still pretty damn cheap.
The best part? FINGER FOOOOOOOOOOOODDDD. Ethiopians eat exclusively with their right hands, so utensils aren’t even given to you unless you ask for them. You’re supposed to eat whatever you ordered by using pieces of injera to pick up the meats, cheeses and vegetables on top of it. Be warned that these foods have a lot of spices, so some of you might have bowel problems à la Ben Stiller in “Along Came Polly.”
I hope your Hump Day is less humpy than mine, and if it’s not, then stop complaining and go eat with your hands!
Photos: quickmeme.com, pandawhale.com, blogspot.com
