Dukem Ethiopian on U Street

Around once a month I organize volunteer events for one of my alumni organizations.  This month we went to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Columbia Heights to help with the Loaves and Fishes program.  Eight churches in the region share responsibility for cooking and serving lunch on Saturdays and Sundays every month.  Third Saturdays belong to St. Columba from Tenleytown, which has volunteered with Loaves and Fishes for the past 30 years.  We helped plate and serve meatloaf with mashed potatoes, vegetable, bread, brownies, fruit and peanut butter sandwiches.  It's a great program and I look forward to heading back in the summertime.  Afterwards, a few of us went to share lunch at Dukem, an Ethiopian restaurant near 12th and U Street.

 Lentil sambusa ($2.50).
Crunchy phyllo-esque wrapper with a spicy lentil mixture wrapped inside.

14 Vegetable Combination Platter with tibs.  I particularly liked the cabbage, collard greens, yellow lentils, fresh tomato and jalapeno salad, and spicy green beans.

We had a fried croaker as well.  Delicious.

With a group of 4, our meal was incredibly filling and relatively healthy (ok minus the beers), for only $22 per person.