Ethiopian food is an integral part of D.C.’s restaurant scene. Refugees who fled their war-ravaged African nation in the 1970s and ’80s settled in the District and kept their culinary traditions alive. Initially rooted around Little Ethiopia at the intersection of Ninth and U Streets NW, the Ethiopian community continues to spread out to parts of Northern Virginia and Maryland. Silver Spring hosts the D.C. area’s biggest Ethiopian cultural festival once a year.