Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant in Baltimore, MD

I've wanted to try Ethiopian food for some time, so tonight I went to Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant (pronounced DOOKem) in Baltimore. This is the second location of a well-known Ethiopian restaurant in Washington DC.

It was good but different -- Ethiopian food is served without utensils, and you use injera bread to scoop it up into your mouth.


About Dukem
Washington DC has about 200,000 Ethiopian residents, and I'm told that includes many if not most of the taxi cab drivers in the District. The stretch of U Street between 9th and 12th Streets in the Shaw neighborhood of DC is sometimes called "Little Ethiopia," and Dukem is one of several Ethiopian restaurants there, including Etete and Queen Makeda.

The Baltimore Dukem opened in 2004, within a few blocks of The Meyerhoff (where the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra plays), the University of Baltimore, and about 5 blocks from Baltimore's Washington Monument.

The Baltimore location has an unprepossessing exterior but is warmer inside, though still somewhat worn around the edges. The small first floor is dominated by a wooden-topped bar with the kitchen in the back, and has several small tabletops in the dining area. The upstairs section was closed today.

The Food
I got a vegetable sambusa (fried pastry shell with lentils, onions, and jalapeños) and a combination platter consisting of beef tibs (beef cubes sauteed with onions, rosemary, tomatoes, jalapeños, and garlic), lamb wot (spicy lamb stew), and minchet abesh (finely chopped beef in ginger and garlic). It also came with a tomato salad.

The sambusa was pretty good. I was doubtful at first because the shell looked overdone, but it was light and flaky and the vegetable filling was nicely spicy, if a little sparse.


For my main meal, the injera bread was not what I expected. It has a spongy consistency similar to a thin cold pancake, but it tasted a lot better than it looked. While I was eating an Ethiopian gentleman came in and ordered a pack of injera bread, speaking what I assume was Amharic.

The meal was served on a large platter on top of injera bread, with another folded injera on the side. I had trouble gauging how much I should scoop up each time, and if there's a graceful way to use pieces of injera bread to eat stew I haven't figured it out. I initially tried not to use my left hand (even though I'm a southpaw) because I wasn't sure you're supposed to, but I found it impossible to tear the injera off without it.


As for the food itself, the minchet abesh was a little bland, but both the beef tibs and the lamb stew were excellent and full of flavor. The stew was indeed very spicy and the marinated tibs were firm yet tender, with much of the flavor coming from the sauteed vegetables.

Next Time
The next time I eat Ethiopian food, I think I'll focus on the tibs and maybe the sambusas. While I liked the wot (stew) it was kind of messy to eat with the injera, especially where the bread was soggy after lying under the food.

The injera bread isn't to my taste, but I'm willing to view it as a cultural experience. Also, since this was my first experience with Ethiopian food I don't have anything to compare it to, and I may try some other restaurants to see how how they fare.

But I liked Dukem enough that I'd like to go back sometime, especially since it's about half the distance (about 30 minutes) from my house as the DC establishments.

Getting There
Dukem is on Maryland Avenue just north of US 40, to the south and west of the bend in the JFX (I-83). Since I was coming from the west I took US 40 (Edmondson Avenue/W. Mulberry/W. Franklin), but I'd probably use Martin Luther King Blvd or I-83 if coming from the south, while I-83 is probably the choice from the north.

Coming from I-70 is a little strange, because there is a small stub just inside the Baltimore beltway and then you have to dump off onto Cooks Lane to US 40; then after a few miles there's a stand-alone 4 mile stretch of highway in the city. 

Apparently Baltimore ran out of the political will to connect these pieces when neighborhoods objected to the highway passing through, which means there's no east-west freeway through central Baltimore. But you can drive to Cove Fort, UT from there.

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Back To 2Amys Pizza

I made it back to 2Amys Neapolitan Pizzeria in Washington DC on Saturday. I had a fairly large meal since I wanted to try several things and I had missed lunch that day.

This is a neat place because while they serve delicious gourmet pizzas, they're also very kid-friendly, as is evident from the table in the front window bay:


The Food
I had their bruschetta, a Pizza Marinara (tomato, garlic, and oregano, with added basil and artichoke hearts), and the Ripieno Extra (a stuffed pizza with ricotta, salami, prosciutto, pancetta, and tomato).

The Pizza Marinara was wonderful, with the marinated artichokes (a special of the day) providing a piquant counterpoint to the pizza, and again I loved the charred taste of the crust from the ovens.


The bruschetta was a little odd, lacking the usual garnish of chopped tomatoes, but was very good if a little pricey at $8. The sauce drizzled over it had a very strong vinegar and garlic presence.


The stuffed pizza (ripieno) was the only disappointment. While very high quality, the taste of the meats were lost in the massive, excessive amounts of ricotta cheese. I won't be getting it again.


Next Time
I'll stick with the pizzas next time and probably try a different appetizer, maybe the polpettine (meatballs); suppli al telefono; or salt cod croquettes. The stuffed pizzas weren't to my taste and I left some of the crust and ricotta unfinished.

4:30 PM was a good time to arrive, as there was no wait for a table. By 5 o'clock the place was packed.

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Brasserie Beck in Washington DC

I had lunch Thursday at Brasserie Beck, Chef Robert Wiedmaier's Belgian-French bistro in Washington DC. Wiedmaier, who has a Belgian father and American mother and grew up in Germany, also owns the French restaurant Marcel's (the restaurants are named after his sons).


The Food
Although I knew that Brasserie Beck is known for its mussels and Belgian frites, I wanted to try some dishes that were a little more unique to the restaurant.

In general Belgian food seems to be somewhat hearty, especially the dishes I chose. It was all good, but not spectacular. I think the major difference of a high-end restaurant like Brasserie Beck is in the lighter touch when it comes to salt and to the sauces.

I ordered roulade of duck confit (foie gras and duck meat formed into a roll over mashed potatoes), choucrote en crote (pork sausage and sauerkraut in puff pastry), and pear tarte tatin with cinnamon honey ice cream for dessert.


For example, the roulade was less exceptional than the sauce surrounding it, which had a delicate, slightly sweet taste reminiscent of plums. The puff pastry of the choucrote en crote was very good -- thin, light, and perfectly browned -- while the sausage reminded me of a weisswurst with its lighter flavor and consistency.


The pear tarte was probably the best dish, having a lightly caramelized syrup and fanned pear slices.


The Beer
Brasserie Beck is actually best known for its extensive 7-page book of Belgian beers. (They have their own beer sommelier, Bill Catron, who has been knighted by the Belgian Knighthood of the Brewers' Mashstaffs.)


I decided to try Gouden Carolis Noel, which is a dark beer with an intensely spicy aroma. It was too strong for my taste (and rather high alcohol at 11%). Their beers also aren't cheap, mostly ranging from $10-$15 a glass.

The Verdict
While the food at Brasserie Beck was very good, it's not enough to draw me from a distance since I think Cafe de Paris in Columbia, MD near my house is comparable in quality at roughly the same price.

If I'm nearby (Brasserie Beck is just a few blocks from Metro Center and the DC Convention Center) it might be worth another visit, especially if I'm looking for European-style cuisine.

On a final note, I wasn't sure if there was a dress code, but while most patrons were in business attire, I think that was more a function of downtown DC on a workday. I saw at least one gentleman in a sportcoat and jeans.
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The 44th President's Inauguration

A co-worker mentioned today that he was thinking of taking his sons into Washington DC to see the Presidential Inauguration on January 20th. As much as I'd like to witness such an historic event, if the estimates of up to 4 million attendees are in the right ballpark (even though there are only 240,000 formal tickets), it will be absolutely crazy downtown.

For perspective, consider these numbers:

• The resident population of DC is about 570,000.
• On a normal workday, commuters from the suburbs bring this number up to about 1 million people.
• Tourists probably add another 200,000 to 400,000 a day depending on the season.
• DC's Metro system, usually the best way to get around, only handles about 700,000 people on a normal workday.
• Washington DC and the closest counties in MD and VA have about 5 million people.

In short, the public transportation system, streets, restaurants, toilets, and all other essential services in DC are going to be overwhelmed on Inauguration Day as the normal population quadruples, even if most federal workers have the day off.

Other Considerations

January is often bitterly cold as well, if not snowbound, and they'll be closing off major sections of the city to traffic, making a normally convoluted street grid highly unpredictable.

Speaking from experience, I've been on the National Mall for the Fourth of July with an estimated crowd of 1 million, and it severely strained the capacity of the system. What's especially bad is when everyone tries to leave at the same time after the event is over.

At least the Monday preceding Inauguration Day is also a federal holiday (Martin Luther King's Birthday) which should ease congestion a little bit.

If You Decide To Go

With all of that said, there's still a part of me that would love to go, so I can understand the excitement. And nobody will really know how many attend until the day of the event so it could be a lot less.

For those who plan to make the trip, I'd highly advise that you read the Washington Post's Inauguration Watch coverage (the FAQs provide a good round-up of important information) or DC's excellent tourism information site. 

Remember that because of heightened security they'll probably not allow a lot of equipment into the Mall area.

Be forewarned though that all of the usual methods of navigating around town will likely be greatly altered by the crush of people and the new traffic patterns, so some of the information may not apply (and that includes the bathroom guide; Porta-Potties may be your friend here).

Update 1/02/09: The latest estimates call for closer to half the original numbers, but planners are preparing for the worst case eventuality. Greenbelt's Metro Station will be closed to cars so that buses can park there, and some highways will also be closed and used for charter bus parking.

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Phoenix: Country Dancing and Dining

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy, and included a very quick trip to Phoenix, AZ. After four trips scattered over 5 years, I finally started to get a sense of how the area is laid out, especially with regard to two of my interests: food and country dancing.


The Phoenix Metropolitan Area
The Phoenix region is surprisingly large, filling a valley ("The Valley of the Sun") of about 500 square miles with over 4 million people. I never made it out to the West Valley, but have only been to the new downtown and communities in the central and eastern areas.

Moving from west to east:

• What is now Phoenix's downtown has glittering high-rises and sports stadiums, but is oddly sterile. When I visited 4 years ago no one seemed to live there and it was hard to even find a place to eat after the workday.
• The older part of central Phoenix has more of a 1950's feel to it, and is the area just north and west of the airport. This is where The Fry Bread House is situated.
• Scottsdale is a very upscale town running north-south for about 20 miles along Scottsdale Road. Historic Old Town Scottsdale has a lot of nice restaurants, hotels, and art galleries. Scottsdale is where the most interesting restaurants are located.
• Just south of Scottsdale is Tempe, the home of Arizona State University, which is a cleaned-up college town and makes for a nice stroll.
• Finally, Chandler (south and east of Tempe) was formerly an ostrich-ranching center but now is the home of a lot of high-tech companies with a lot of new suburban buildings. It's dominated by national shopping and restaurant chains.

The Quest for Food
Some eating establishments worth mentioning:

1. Cowboy Ciao (Scottsdale) was by far the most interesting restaurant I tried. Located just north of Old Town, they had a creative take on almost every dish, and while the results were mixed I appreciated the effort.


We shared small portions of their signature dish, a pan of sauteed mushrooms; braised pork belly; buffalo carpaccio; blue cheese cheesecake; and chocolate chip cookies with bacon.


The pickled cucumber salad that accompanied the pork belly was excellent, and one of the mushrooms was really good, tasting like shitake that had been placed in a tangy marinade. The cheesecake wasn't quite so successful, as the blue cheese was simply too strong, but the homemade five-spice ice cream it came with was terrific with a delicate blend of spice and sweetness.


The rhubarb soda was also...different. Very dry and slightly bitter.

It's worth going back to this restaurant just to see what they've done with other dishes; the Stetson salad with smoked salmon comes highly recommended.

2. The Fry Bread House (Phoenix) is run by the Tohono O’oadham Indian tribe. Fry Bread is basically just flour and lard, and has been blamed for obesity and other health problems on the reservations where at one time they couldn't afford much else.

But I wanted to try something distinctive to the area so I had one drizzled with honey and another with chocolate. They were interesting but not necessarily decadently good.

3. Patsy Grimaldi's (Chandler) was a slight disappointment. This is an outpost of the New York City chain that claims to have been the first pizzeria in NYC. The toppings were decent, but the crust was a little too dry and reminiscent of flatbread or crackers.


I'm probably a little spoiled after having one of Two Amy's pizzas in Washington DC last month, but Grimaldi's also wasn't too similar to the good pizzas I've had in New York.

4. My Big Fat Greek Restaurant (Chandler) was bland. This local chain has a gleaming modern building and they serve flaming saganaki cheese, but the Greek food they serve in large quantities is somewhat pedestrian.

Country Dancing in Phoenix
Unfortunately, the only night I was free to go dancing was Thursday night, which I would find is a slow night in the area. But I did talk to a couple of locals who gave me the rundown on when and where to dance.

1. Graham Central Station (Tempe) is really the only place to dance if you want to do the Texas Two-Step. Like all of the GCS locations they have several varied clubs under one roof, but the country portion, called Rocking Rodeo, features a huge wooden dance floor (about 60 x 90 feet).


There weren't too many people there that night, but I talked to a guy named Steve who kept doing the Tush Push and he said that they're much more crowded on Wednesday (Ladies Night), Friday, and Saturday. Steve also told me that Rocking Rodeo once occupied the entire club, with a dance floor about 3 times the current size.

A couple of girls warned me that they were "terrible" dancers, but after dancing a waltz and two-step with one I could see she has the potential to be very good. It's a shame that many guys leave a girl with the impression that mistakes are her fault, when 90% of the time it's all dependent on the male lead.

My experience with GCS in other locations has been pretty hit-or-miss (the alternate-format clubs take the focus off the country dancing), but it doesn't appear there's any other real option in Phoenix so I'll give it another shot the next time I'm in town.

2. Earlier that evening I went to Whiskey River Saloon (Phoenix), which is on the north side of town. The dance floor there was tiny, but there were a lot of older couples (mostly 50's and 60's) dancing there.


An older gentleman named Rich seemed to be very knowledgeable and explained some things that had been puzzling me.

Apparently, unique to the Phoenix area is a dance that they call the Arizona Two-Step, which is an adaptation of the Two-Step to very small dance floors. It has a similar rhythm, but is more of a hand dance that moves side-to-side in place.

In practice, the Arizona Two-Step looks like a cross between an East Coast Swing and what I think of as the "real" Two-Step, which in Arizona is called the Progressive (or Texas) Two-Step. (A Texas Two-Step "progresses" in a counter-clockwise circle around the dance floor, and is danced in the "closed" position, where the man cradles the lady in his right arm.)

According to Rich, the only place to do a Texas Two-Step is GCS, which is also the best place for singles. He said all of the other clubs are small like Whiskey River, mentioning a place called Roman's in Phoenix and a couple of places in Chandler.

Future Trips
So the next time I'm in Phoenix, I'll have to set aside a Wednesday or weekend night to go dancing at Graham Central Station, and go back to Cowboy Ciao for dinner.

I've also thought about going to Cafe Forte or Medizona in Scottsdale for lunch or dinner. I'd like to try Binkley's in Cave Creek but not only does it sound very expensive but reservations might be impossible to get on short notice. The Horny Toad Barbecue Restaurant in Cave Creek was also recommended to me, but it sounds like a tourist trap.

I'd also like to explore some other areas, perhaps Glendale in the West Valley or Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in Scottsdale.

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2Amys Pizza in Washington DC

I drove about an hour Saturday for pizza at 2Amys in Washington DC. It was absolutely worth it.

2Amys serves gourmet, European-style pizzas. I lived in southern Germany for 5 years and that experience altered my preferences for German, Italian, and Greek/Balkan cuisine toward lighter, less sugary sauces and fresh tastes where the individual ingredients are very distinct.


About 2Amys
2Amys was founded by Peter Pastan and Tim Giammetti (the Amys in the name are their wives) to recreate as authentically as possible the Neapolitan-style pizza that the owners had eaten in Naples, Italy. (By the way, some people consider Pastan's Obelisk Italian restaurant to be the best eating establishment of any sort in the District.)

Their pizza is ultra-thin with a puffy outer crust and the sauce has a sharp, very fresh-tomato character with strong salt overtones. I got the Margherita Extra (tomato sauce, mozarella di bufala, basil, and cherry tomatoes) with the addition of fresh garlic and salami.

(The Margherita Extra is one of three D.O.C. pizzas at 2Amys, meaning it has received a Denominazione di Origine Controllata certificate of authenticity from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.)

The pizza was terrific. The sauce had a bit of a bite and instead of all of the ingredients being rendered down and mashed together, you could clearly identify each ingredient in the pizza. As you can see in the picture above the whole basil leaves still looked green and fresh even after cooking.

The crust also was slightly charred from the wood-burning oven, which I thought gave it a nice distinctive flavor but may not be to everyone's taste.

As I was leaving, the family next to me was raving over the polpettine (meatballs) and the bruschetta they had gotten for appetizers. The bruschetta had such an unusual toasted appearance that I didn't recognize it and I had to ask them what it was.

It looked so mouth-wateringly good that I made a note to get it the next time I'm there.

My Next Visit
I'll definitely have to return soon, but 2Amys isn't all that convenient to reach. It's just off Wisconsin Avenue about a mile from the nearest Metro station, so the only real option to get there is driving.

I took Connecticut Avenue down from the DC Beltway and even on a Saturday traffic was moderately heavy, though parking wasn't a problem.

Update (12/21/08): I made it back to 2Amy's and while I still love their thin pizzas, I can't recommend their stuffed pizzas (calzones) which are too heavy on the ricotta.

More Pictures
From the outside, 2Amys is somewhat non-descript:


Inside, it's much nicer, and this is the bar area where I sat because there was no wait. (They don't take reservations.)


From this angle you can see the front area of the restaurant, as well as diners waiting for a table. 10 minutes after I took this shot the bar was jammed and there were people waiting outside on the street for a table.


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Shiba Inu Puppy Cam

The New York Times has an article about how a live puppy cam has given a webcast company, Ustream.tv, a big boost. But enough words, time for the pictures:

Free live streaming by Ustream

Update (12/19/08): The puppies are growing up and at this point three of them have been adopted. UStream, recognizing when they've got a good thing going, seems to have recruited a new litter of Shiba Inu puppies for a new puppycam.

Some more pictures and screen shots from the original crew:

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Pick-up Volleyball

I played volleyball twice this week, Sunday at the church and Monday at the county rec center. Monday was my first time to play at Howard County's new Glenwood Center:


I had fun both days but I never got comfortable at Glenwood and played poorly all around; on Sunday at least my defense came around toward the end and I made some decent digs of some very hard hits.

I'll probably try to go out to Glenwood again sometime. They had a few decent players so it was mostly just that I was out of sync and then I twisted my back after a couple of hours of play. I'd say the overall level of play was B league.

The facility has an interesting layout where big dividers that can be mechanically rolled up separate the courts (with basketball on the other side of the partition), a system that actually isolates the courts pretty well.

I also picked up a medical clearance form so I can use the weight room. They have treadmills, stationary bikes, free weights, and exercise machines at the center. Glenwood is furthermore a green technologies showcase for the county, with waterless urinals and geothermal heating.

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Crab Cakes at The Narrows

Maryland is justly proud of the blue crabs pulled out of the Chesapeake Bay. (We will ignore for now the crabs that come from Asia, it apparently being cheaper to give those crabs frequent flyer miles than to pay migrant workers to process local crabs.)

These days I let someone else do the hard work of crab picking while I focus my eating on crab cakes. Since I was in Annapolis yesterday I decided to cut across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Kent Island for dinner and try The Narrows Restaurant, which is famous for its crab cakes.

The Crab-Eating Process
When I first moved to Maryland, I went to a crab feast with some co-workers, and while it was a pleasant afternoon spent hammering away at crab parts with a little wooden mallet, as a food-ingesting activity it was a total failure.

I quickly realized that I was expending more calories trying to wrest the miniscule fragments of meat from the shells than I was actually taking in, making it a net loss from a nutritional standpoint, so since then I've focused on crab dishes where someone else does the shelling for me.

Crab Cakes
Crab cakes are actually fairly simple, consisting of crab meat, some filler or binder, and spices such as Old Bay Seasoning. But even so there's wide variation in the crab cakes served in Maryland and much good-natured argument over who has the "best" crab cakes.

In my own limited experience I've come across 3-4 basic varieties. I prefer the light-tasting, lightly-handled lump crab crab cakes where the focus is on large chunks of crab, of which The Narrows' crab cake is a good example. Then there are varieties that use somewhat shredded crab, which have more of a spongy consistency. The cakes can be broiled or fried.

There are spicier versions of both, and finally there are the somewhat unique specimens of G&M's and Timbuktu near BWI Airport, which are huge mounds of strongly seasoned imported crab meat which people either love or hate.

In an article online, Chef Paul Shiley of The Narrows provides his restaurant's recipe, and it's basically just jumbo lump crabmeat, cracker meal, egg, mayonnaise, and a dash of some seasonings. An interesting point is his claim that Maryland (with perhaps 2% of the country's population and 10% of its crab production) consumes 50% of the crabs in the US.

For an impassioned treatise on the crab cake, you should read Henry Hong's entertaining article in Baltimore City Paper from earlier this year. Here's his photo of a crab cake from Breezy Point Seafood:

The Narrows
So did The Narrows' crab cake live up to it's reputation? Well, kind of.

It's a very good example of the more restrained variety of crab cake, with nice large chunks of crab meat and most of the character coming from the light browning on the bottom and outer crust. I thought it was broiled, but Chef Shiley's recipe calls for deep frying; either way, it has a light, non-greasy taste. Their traditional vegetable-based crab soup which I had for a starter was also very good.

It's probably not worth the hour-long drive for me to Grasonville (especially not when the Bay Bridge has a long line at the toll booths) just to get a crab cake. With that said, Kent Island has a number of good restaurants because it's located where traffic used to back up for Marylanders returning from Ocean City, and The Narrows is situated on the water. I'd like to go back sometime during the daytime when it looks like the view will be spectacular.

At $18 for a crab cake and a salad, The Narrows also isn't all that cheap (but then again, we got a light dusting of snow yesterday so maybe crabs aren't exactly in season). 

The Verdict
I'm not likely to drive the long distance simply to get a crab cake at The Narrows Restaurant, but it's an excellent specimen of the lump-crab style, and it's worth trying again when I'm in the area and especially when I can appreciate the view.

Further Exploration
Sorting out the contenders from the pretenders is left as an exercise for the reader, but here are some crab cake emporiums culled from the City Paper article and Chowhound.com. Proceed at your own risk:

Angelina's Restaurant, Baltimore (restaurant is now closed, but crab cakes can be ordered online)
Breezy Point Seafood Co., Rosedale
Cafe de Paris, Columbia
Duda's, Baltimore (Fells Point)
Faidley Seafood, Baltimore
G&M Restaurant, Linthicum Heights
Gertrude's, Baltimore
Greenmount Station, Hampstead
Jerry's Seafood, Lanham and Annapolis
Mama's on the Half Shell, Baltimore (Canton)
The Narrows Restaurant, Grasonville (Kent Island)
Manor Tavern, Monkton
Oceannaire Seafood Room, Baltimore
Pappas Restaurant, Parkville
Pierpoint Restaurant, Baltimore
Roma Cafe, Cockeysville
Timbuktu, Hanover

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Line Dancing 101

My "How to Line Dance" Guide

I love all forms of C&W (Country & Western) dancing. When I lived in Texas, I learned the major couples dances: two-step, polka, waltz, and jitterbug (a fast form of East Coast Swing).

But after I moved to the East Coast I quickly realized that if I was going to enjoy myself I would also need to learn line dances, because the venues were a lot smaller and on some songs there wasn't really room to do anything else.

Since I didn't have any ethical or legal objections to line dancing (unlike others I know from Texas ☺) I've since learned -- or more likely, forgotten -- something like 200 line dances.

Here's a quick line dancing primer:

The Fundamentals
Since you don't need a partner for line dancing (ignoring circle dances for now), it removes the complication of having to learn how to lead and follow. So line dancing largely consists of memorizing a sequence of steps in a pattern that typically repeats after something like 32 or more counts (beats).

The patterns often end facing a different direction ("wall"), so the number of times when the dance starts facing a new direction makes it a 1-wall, 2-wall, or 4-wall dance. A dance that rotates 90 degrees each time would eventually face all four walls of a room.

Five-Six-Seven-Eight
It helps to view the line dance as made up of little blocks that are reused from one dance to another, and many of these blocks will be familiar if you've ever taken aerobics. For example, instead of having to remember a four-step sequence to the right:

step with right foot to the side
step left foot behind right
step right foot to the side
touch or hitch left foot next to right

...you would simply remember this as a "grapevine right." (And there's a corresponding "grapevine left" that simply reverses direction.)

Most line dances (and the building blocks that make them up) change every four or eight counts. That's because that's where the music breaks for most country (and rock) songs, which are typically in 2/4 or 4/4 time. In musical terms that means the measures or bars are typically two or four beats long. From the Connexions web site:

In practical terms what you'll notice is that for many songs the music seems to change every eight beats, which is why you'll hear instructors start a dance by counting out, "five-six-seven-eight." By starting the dance where the music breaks naturally, the dance will feel like it's in sync with the song.

Step Sheets
When trying to learn line dances, step sheets are very helpful. As the name implies these are step-by-step instructions for line dances, usually with one step per count (beat). Fortunately, what was probably the most complete collection of line dance step sheets on the web, Patti Brown's Dancing Deep in the Heart of Texas, now seems to be back up, and KickIt seems to still be live.

The Beats
Tempo, or beats per minute (bpm), is pretty important in any kind of dancing. It's the number of beats per minute that usually dictates which dance to do to a given song. If the song is too slow or too fast it won't be fun, either because it's hard to keep up with the music or it feels like it's dragging.

This is fairly subjective and generally more important for couples dancing. I dance at Cancun Cantina, where line dances mostly range between 100-140 bpm, but this varies a lot from club to club. As a point of reference, here are some typical tempos for couples dancing:

70-100 bpm: Slow dancing (or if counted double-time, a Two-Step)
100-140 bpm: West Coast Swing
135-210 bpm: Two-Step (a comfortable range is about 160-170 bpm, but some of the most fun ones are faster, around 180-210 bpm)
135-200 bpm: East Coast Swing (faster ones are more of a jitterbug)
180-240 bpm: Polka

On the Dance Floor
Then there's the matter of floor etiquette. For everyone to dance on the same floor and have an enjoyable time, it helps to understand some conventions, especially in the Eastern US where floors are smaller and also shared between couples and line dancers.

A C&W dance floor is kind of like a race track or highway, with couples dancers moving in a counter-clockwise circle. If the floor is big enough, there will be concentric "lanes," with the fast lane on the outside and slower dancers in toward the center. So line dancers should try to stay in the center, as should more stationary couples dancers such as swing or ballroom.

When you run into someone on the floor during a dance -- as you inevitably will -- just smile and apologize.

Some Line Dances
So now that you're ready to get out on the dance floor, here are some dances to try. I don't know why, by the way, some of the dances have suggestive names. They're typically not nearly as salacious as the names might imply and it creates a dilemma if you're trying to teach them to kids.

Easy Beginner Dances:

• Down & Dirty (Walk Softly On This Heart Of Mine by The Kentucky Headhunters or Strokin' by Clarence Carter)
• Safe Sex (Fast As You by Dwight Yoakam or Whoomp! There It Is by Tag Team) - simple but fun; it helps if you recognize that the pattern forms an upside down, backwards "L" shape, or the left half of a "T"
• Booty Call (Booty Call by Dazz/Atomic Dog) - OK, you may have done this one already
• Cut A Rug (Roll Back the Rug by Scooter Lee) [video]
• Sleazy Slide (That's How Country Boys Roll by Billy Currington)
• Cupid Shuffle (Cupid Shuffle by Cupid) [video] [how-to video]

Classics (performed coast to coast):

• Tush Push (The Girl's Gone Wild by Travis Tritt) [video] [video]
• Slappin' Leather (T-R-O-U-B-L-E by Travis Tritt) [video]
• Cotton-Eyed Joe (Cotton-Eyed Joe by Isaac Payton Sweat [traditional] or Rednex [hip hop]) - like a line dance done with a partner, moving in a circle [video]
• Watermelon Crawl (Watermelon Crawl by Tracy Byrd) [video]
  

Beginner Dances (DC-MD-VA area):

• Bartender's Stomp (Baby Likes To Rock It by The Tractors) [video] [video]
• Canadian Stomp (Pickin' Wildflowers by Keith Anderson, Redneck Yacht Club by Craig Morgan, Cowboy by Kid Rock, or Any Man of Mine by Shania Twain) [video]
• Cool Dance a.k.a. Progressive Cowboy a.k.a. A Kool Dance (All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down by The Mavericks or Cheaper to Keep Her by Kevin Fowler)
• Copperhead Road (Copperhead Road by Steve Earle) - I do the easy 32-count version using cross-kicks for counts 9-16 [start 24 beats before the lyrics; see this video (which differs from our version because we turn to the right)] which gets fun when the music speeds up; but others do the 24-count Kentucky Chug version [cool French video]
• Country Walkin' (HotLittleCutiePieSexyThang by LoCash Cowboys) [video]
• D.H.S.S. (Yee Haw by Jake Owen, Hicktown by Jason Aldean, or Drunker Than Me by Trent Tomlinson; choreographed to Coffee by Supersister) [video]
• Dizzy (Dizzy by Scooter Lee) [video]
• Fishin' (Pray for the Fish by Randy Travis)
• Ghost Train (Ghost Train by Australia's Tornado) [video] [video]
• God Blessed Texas (God Blessed Texas by Little Texas)
• Got To Be Funky (She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy by Kenny Chesney, or Got To Be Funky by Maurice John Vaughn) - actually similar to and not too much harder than Booty Call [video] [video] [video]
• Jive Walkin' (Slam Dunk Da Funk by Five) [video]
  
• Refried Dreams a.k.a. Chicken Fried (Chicken Fried by Zac Brown Band or Refried Dreams by Tim MacGraw) - simple dance but very fun if down with style and athleticism
• Ski Bumpus (Boot Scootin' Boogie by Brooks & Dunn) [video] - danced contra at Cancun Cantina (in two or more opposite lines facing each other)
• Zjozzy's Funk (Bacco Perbacco by Zucchero) [video]

Beginner/Intermediate Dances (DC-MD-VA area):

• All Shook Up (All Shook Up by Billy Joel) - note that on this version of the song you should start 16 beats into the song, when the back-up singers start; then on the 4th and 6th times through, you start at count 17 (with the right toe to the side) [this video is close to how we do it]
• Apple Jack (Dance [Club Mix] by Twister Alley, Sin Wagon by The Dixie Chicks, or any other frenetic polka beat) - 18-count line dance is simple but it can be tricky getting the feel of how to shift weight in the Apple Jacks at the beginning [video]
• Askin' Questions (Askin' Questions by Brady Seals) [video] [video]
• Bar Room Romeo (I Brake for Brunettes by Rhett Akins, I Like It, I Love It by Tim McGraw, or Pound Sign (#?*!) by Kevin Fowler) [video]
• Black Dresses (Daddy's Money by Ricochet or Black Dresses by Steve Kolander) [video from the choreographer Michael Barr]
• Cowboy Casanova (Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood or Here Comes Summer by LoCash Cowboys) [video] - 48-count 4-wall choreographed by Lisa Capelle
• Cowboy Hip-Hop (Gonna Make You Sweat - Everybody Dance Now by C+C Music Factory or Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy [Dance Remix] by Big & Rich)
• Cowboy Rhythm (Thump Factor by Smokin' Armadillos) [video] [video] - I learned this one from a couple who dance at Colorado Cafe in Watchung, NJ
• Crazy Legs (Cotton Eye Joe Club Mix by Rednex, Everybody Gonfi Gon by 2 Cowboys) [video]
• Cripple Creek (Cripple Creek by Jim Rast and Knee Deep) [video] - this is also danced contra at Cancun Cantina
• Dancing Feet (High On Love by Patty Loveless or Patient Heart by Bekka & Billy)
• Flying Eights (Fishin' in the Dark by Emerson Drive or Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
• Four On The Floor (Four On The Floor by Lee Brice) [video]
• Leather and Lace (She Bangs by Ricky Martin) - Roz Morgan version
• Linda Lu (Linda Lu by Ricky Van Shelton) - don't get confused and use a different version of the song, this is the fun one [video]
  
• Mambo Shuffle (Father Sun by Wynnona Judd or Poker Face by Lady Gaga) [video]
• Men in Black (You Walked In by Lonestar) [strange sideways video]
• Metamorphosized (Total Eclipse of the Heart by Nicki French)
• Pot of Gold (Dance Above the Rainbow by Ronan Hardiman) [video]
• Red High Heels (Red High Heels by Kellie Pickler or Kerosene by Miranda Lambert) [video] - this version danced at Cancun Cantina seems to be a slightly different variation
• Swamp Thang (Swamp Thing by The Grid) [video]
• Uno, Dos, Tres (Maria Spanglish Radio Edit by Ricky Martin or I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) by Pitbull) [video] [video]
• Zydeco Lady (Cherry Bomb by John Mellencamp or Gravity Storm by Jimmy Buffett)

Advanced Dances (typically club specific):

• All Jacked Up (All Jacked Up by Gretchen Wilson) - very physically demanding dance; I'm told it's from the Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown, OH
• Baby Com' On (Baby Come On by Chris Anderson and DJ Robbie) [video] [video]
• The Beast (Something In The Water by The Cheap Seats) [video1] [video2] [video3] - all in the videos here are truly great dancers, but the guy in video3 is amazing
• Big Doggin' (Big Doggin' Around by Neal McCoy)
  
• Buff Dance (Buff Little Girls by Pete Andrew)
• Cha Cha Loco (Man! I Feel Like A Woman by Shania Twain)
  
• Chill Factor (Last Night by Chris Anderson & DJ Robbie) [video][video] [video - Chill Factor, then Baby Com' On]
• Funk-N-Gruvin (Loosen Up My Strings by Clint Black)
  
• Hold Your Horses (Hold Your Horses by E-Type) [video] [video]
• Humpty (5, 6, 7, 8 by Steps)
  
• Kickin' The Blues (Daddy Laid The Blues On Me by Bobbie Cryner)
• Kick N Rock (Wild and Free by Rednex - this is a psychotically fast song; or Play Something Country by Brooks & Dunn - fun if done with attitude and a bit of bounce)
• Swing Time Boogie (Swing City by Roger Brown) [video]
  
• Wild Wild West (Wild Wild West by Will Smith) [video]
  

Related:

• My Favorite Country Bars (11/6/08)
  
• DC-MD-VA Country Bands Calendar

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