Popular pastry street food, the sambusas of Ethiopian market Addisu Gebeya at 2202 18th Street NW, made with crisp phyllo-like pastry and filled with a spicy lentil mix, gives most other over-the-counter samosas a good run for their money. The small shop has a wide range of spices, lentils and pulses, aenjera and ambaasha breads, as well as incense, music tapes, books, some clothing and artifacts. Call 202 986 6013. In  the frozen cabinet at Shemali's in the Foxhall Medical Building on3100 New Mexico Ave NW, you will find packets of frozen potato and pea samosas for deep frying - excellent for parties. Most Indian groceries sell home-mde samosas.

Graham Bartlett is executive chef of Zengo, where you can find almost everything from ceviche to sushi. He caught the “food bug” while traveling with his parents in Mexico. But Paris, not the States nor Latin America was where he went to learn the culinary arts.