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My mom's squash sambar.

Thai pumpkin curry

Well, for "I wish it were a real state" DC, I'm going to have to go with the half-smoke.

It really depends on my mood. Sometimes I'll make myself something nice, and enjoy cooking just for me. Other times I will make tuna salad or a frozen pizza (I not so secretly love frozen pizza) and call it a day.

Thanks to both of you!

Hard to pick! I think I will go with channa masala, with cauliflower added to it.

Biggest disaster? The time I mistakenly wrote the proportions for a recipe for cornbread down so incorrectly that I ended up making a batch of bread that overflowed in the oven and caused all sorts of smoke, burning, and fire alarm beeping. Cleaning that up once the burned bits stuck to the oven had cooled down was not fun. :)

ethiopian

tomatoes and jam

The half smoke, but this may be because I live only a few blocks from Ben's. :)

@ semarr, I was wondering the exact same thing.

I once was out with a group of friends, and when the bill came, we miscounted the amount of money we placed in the bill for payment. So when we thought we were leaving $120 on a $100 bill, we accidentally left only $106. Instead of asking if service had been ok (it had been fine) or if the amount we left was our intention (it was not), the manager on duty came over to our table, assumed we were a bunch of cheap students, and told us rudely that we tipped too little and were never to come back.

I would have MUCH preferred to be approached as Hannah did her customers. Our server had done a fine job at our table, and we would gladly and immediately have rectified the situation should he have brought it to our attention the way Hannah did. And we would have gone back to the place in the future.

And while we did fix it and leave $120 in the end (on the assumption that it's not the server's fault that the manager was an ass), I will not be visiting that place again.

The area right around the GW campus isn't really known for its abundance of cheap food, unless you're looking to eat at Au Bon Pain or in the student center. There are a few places, though. Thai Plaze on Pennsylvania Ave is pretty good and affordable. Tonic makes some yummy chicken wings.

That said, northwest DC is not a large area, and the metro makes getting around even easier if you want to venture away from campus to eat. I second KarynMC on the Ethiopian. (I'm partial to Dukem on U Street myself). There's also Pizzeria Paradiso (Dupont Circle), and I've heard good things about Malaysia Kopitiam (close to Dupont Circle).

@KarynMC- Did you mean Asylum for the place in Adams Morgan?