Most states are famous for a certain food - NY (pizza), Maryland (crabs) etc. What food is Washington DC famous for? Where is good food available there? (and i dont mean McDonalds!)

I don't know if D.C. is famous for a certain food, but there are two places that I highly recommend. The first is America on Capital Hill. The menu has hundreds of American items and tells you what part of the country the food comes from (chili dogs from Coney Island, B.L.T. from Newport, etc...)It's really a neat place where you may spot some famous faces (we saw Newt Gingrich there...)

My favorite place in D.C. is Old Glory Barbecue in Georgetown. The atmosphere is great, and you can sample barbecue sauces from all over the country (mostly southern recipes, of course). It's inexpensive, too.

Carrol--which city are you hungry in? There are a lot of good places to eat in DC, but what meal, what budget, and what kind of food are you talking about.
I don't know if DC has a DC-specific food. Because of our proximity to MD and VA, we tend to go in for their specialties--crabcakes at Kinkead's, Southern food at Vidalia and Georgia Brown's. You can also see a Southern influence at 1789.

There is also Adams-Morgan where there are restaurants of many many ethnic choices -- Ethiopian, Italian, Vietnamese, Salvadoran, Spanish, French, Caribbean - you name it!

Good point, Diane (you long-term resident, you). Is it true that DC has the largest Ethiopian population outside Ethiopia? I heard that once, wasn't sure if it was an urban myth or a fun fact.

Definitely try the Ethiopian food in Adams Morgan. It's unlike any other food, and it's so much fun. I had it for the first time there, and liked it so much, we found one in Boston, so we can have it more often.

Like the other posts indicated, DC is not known for any particular food. What it is known for is the diversity of cuisine. Although certain restaurants may stand out, after living here for 13 years, the real advantage to living here is that no matter what you have an appetite for, it's available somewhere in town. Also, suburbs of DC are very ethnically diverse. For instance, in Arlington, Virginia, there is a large Vietnamese population so you have a wide choice of Vietnamese restaurants. Up where I live in Gaithersburg, we have a large Hispanic community so one finds lots of South American cuisine. The Greeks that own Ambrosia in Rockville have the best Greek food in the area, we think! If I had to say that one particular food is more prevalent, I suppose that would be the abundance of seafood available due to DC's location on the Potomac and near Chesapeake Bay. Now I'm getting hungry!

Gee Hannah, I'm just to your East in Olney. The diversity in the area is extraordinary. Our favorite restaurants at the moment are Tara Thai in Bethesda or Rockville, the Saigon Inn a bit further up Rockville Pike, Crisfield's (seafood) in Silver Spring, and Tapas (Spanish) downtown in DC near the MCI Center. We just got a Belgian bistro in Olney, Mannekin Pis, which has super mussels and fries. When we lived downtown, we loved Nora's (which is still there North of Dupont Circle area)where they serve high-class healthy cuisine. Does anyone know if El Bodegon is still around? They used to have Flamenco dancers and the owner would stroll the restaurant demonstrating to patrons how to drink wine from the bodegon! The food was great and it was a lot of fun. Back in the '70s when I moved to DC, the most talked about "local" food was seafood with "rum buns" served at big tourist joints on the waterfront. I always thought that was a terrible slight to the really WONDERFUL cuisine available across the city.

In the past two years that I have lived in DC, my favorite restaurant has consistently been Lauriol Plaza in Dupont/Adams Morgan. It has the best margaritas, fresh fish, & spanish food in town. The atmosphere is great, the prices are reasonable, and they are in the process of moving down a block where they have built a restaurant from the ground up, due to the need for mass expansion. It is by far, someplace not to miss!

Diane: Is the Olney Ale House still there and do they still have wonderful fried chicken? About 1981 we used to drive from Arlington (just about halfway around the Beltway, as you know) for it. Then I moved away, and here it is almost 20 years later but I still remember that chicken.

Yup..Olney Ale House is still standing....and also Sherwood high school, Olney Theatre etc.
(I should know, I live there)

About 2 years ago, navy bean soup was voted the "official" food of Washington, DC. Go figure.

Tax payers eat a lot of crow in Washington DC. The best crow to be found is at a place called The Whitehouse. The chef there is womanizer by the name of Bill Clinton who is very good at serving baloney.