Dukem Ethiopian Market Restaurant, 1114 W Street, NW, Washington D.C. 20009, 202-667-8735
Overall Rating: Somewhere between 2 to 3.5 / 5 stars (I'm a newbie Ethiopian foodie)
Atmosphere: Very casual setting when we arrived at 5:30pm, but the business built up throughout the evening which added a liveliness to an otherwise ho hum setting.
Service: Sufficient. They were nice. They took our orders.
For a foodie who has never tried an international cuisine which I did not enjoy, I think I have finally stumbled upon one. No one’s a perfect foodie.
About 2 heaping tablespoons of each meat/veggie “stew" are placed on a soft wet bread served on a large platter. The options were: a bitter green veggie, 2 types of meat “stews” (the closest thing I can compare it to is a curry as one of these two were spicy), a beef and onion stir fry (the beef is tough, it is not as flavourful or tender as other stir fries I have tried), a type of yellow bean, chopped tomatoes and onions, and a type of "mush" which must have been pureed beans. I enjoyed the spicy flavor of the curry type stews the most.
I find the “stews” make the bread all soggy so I am not a big fan of this tradition of serving. Think of the bread as a big pancake and since it is already moist (when compared with, lets say, a Mexican taco, tortilla, a Middle Eastern wrap, a Greek Pita, or even a Chinese Peking duck wrap), it does not provide the contrast in textures which I normally enjoy in other cuisines.
I find serving spoons useful, albeit unorthodox, for a group of six sharing two platters. With no cutlery, I navigate by tearing a larger than typical piece of bread and filling and wrapping it with veggie/bean/meat “wrap/tortilla style” rather than using the bread authentically as “spoon” for each bite.
The unappetizing part is that once the food is scooped out, there are only bits left on the bread/plate and I think that looks kinda like yucky leftovers. As one is supposed to eat the bread that was under the stews, it is now soggy with the sauce/moisture. Although I believe the point is that the bread gains flavor, personally the appeal is lost in both the sight and sogginess.
And I don’t quite get the value. One platter was about $18 and the other about one with the 2 stews and one beef stir fry was $28 and the serving size was about 2ish per platter. It just was not a lot of food. And the food arrives warm (read: there a huge pots of these stews in the back, and all they have to do is spoon a few tablespoons of each type on the bread/platter) without the freshly made effect of freshly steamed, baked, braised, or broiled foods.
Maybe I just need to become more versed in the art of enjoying Ethiopian cuisine. Our Ethiopian taxi driver recommended Dukem over another Ethiopian restaurant in Georgetown. The place was filled up, and the ethnic makeup including patrons from both Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian descent, so people must be coming back (My friends did.) So another try is required before I write off this restaurant or this cuisine. I kind of left the restaurant unsatisfied. And judging from the appetites of all parties involved at the pie place "Dangerously Delicious" after wards, I think I was not the only one still wanting more!
