WALK LIKE AN ETHIOPIAN
Another Friday. Time for another culinary adventure. This time the vote was for Ethiopian food and we made a beeline for the restaurant called the Red Sea. It is situated in a not-so-nice part of town on University Avenue. The people in our group, specially the ones with the nice cars, were a bit jittery about parking in the dark by lanes, so we ended up making at least four trips around the restaurant just to find parking that met with everyone’s approval.
The restaurant itself had a very homey feel. The art and the pictures on the wall were all done on leather which gives the illusion of being inside a tent. Our waitress was a work of art herself. She was tiny, slim with an exquisite face that seemed to have been carved out of ebony. She reminded me of all the long-necked busts that people bring back from trips to Africa. The service was pretty slow, but then I don’t think anyone minded.
Ethiopian food is eaten with the hands, so I felt right at home. We started off with what seemed like samosas, just a flattened version. It was listed as a sambusa or was it listed as sammossa with a lot of extra ss and mms thrown in for effect?
The staple dish is “injera” which closely resembles a large dosa. The food is served on huge platters and the injera lines the inside of the platter. The side dishes are served on top of the injera. The side dishes, which can range from lentils to dishes of lamb and beef, have a lot of similarities to Indian cuisine. They could easily be mistaken for home- made Indian curries.
The Ethiopians also eat a spicy “hot sauce” with their meals to add an extra zing. It reminded me of garlic pickle minus the scent of garlic.
But the most interesting part of the food is the way some of their traditions are linked to it. Ethiopians chew a portion of the food and then gently pass it into the mouth of their loved one. This is generally practiced amongst spouses. Any takers?
The restaurant itself had a very homey feel. The art and the pictures on the wall were all done on leather which gives the illusion of being inside a tent. Our waitress was a work of art herself. She was tiny, slim with an exquisite face that seemed to have been carved out of ebony. She reminded me of all the long-necked busts that people bring back from trips to Africa. The service was pretty slow, but then I don’t think anyone minded.
Ethiopian food is eaten with the hands, so I felt right at home. We started off with what seemed like samosas, just a flattened version. It was listed as a sambusa or was it listed as sammossa with a lot of extra ss and mms thrown in for effect?
The staple dish is “injera” which closely resembles a large dosa. The food is served on huge platters and the injera lines the inside of the platter. The side dishes are served on top of the injera. The side dishes, which can range from lentils to dishes of lamb and beef, have a lot of similarities to Indian cuisine. They could easily be mistaken for home- made Indian curries.
The Ethiopians also eat a spicy “hot sauce” with their meals to add an extra zing. It reminded me of garlic pickle minus the scent of garlic.
But the most interesting part of the food is the way some of their traditions are linked to it. Ethiopians chew a portion of the food and then gently pass it into the mouth of their loved one. This is generally practiced amongst spouses. Any takers?
posted by newatthis at 4:28 PM
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