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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