Tonight we went for dinner to an Ethiopian restaurant and wow...the food was wonderful.
Often I feel that the food in restaurants is not as tasty as my own Indian cooking. But tonight we found a rival!
All of the food is served on a platter in the middle of the table. Ethiopians used to eat on the ground in a circle in the past. Every dish is piled on the platter, and then we were each given a large, soft and spongy bread called injira. It is cooked very similar to dosai (an Indian savory pancake).
We were given some very simple instructions on how to eat the food, and before we knew it, Priya was folding the injira over the dal and wisking it quickly to her mouth. She taught us.
Actually, Priya has eaten in this restaurant before, because her respite care family has taken her there. Well, we just loved the food. It was very comfortable, very relaxing. The kids had a great time eating with their hands and we all know that is how kids would prefer to eat. They were so happy!
And the bill...for and adult, this might be the best part!!! It was only $15.30 USD! We actually could have eaten only one of the platters and the injira that came with it, but we wanted to take one home with us so I ordered another one and the kids took just a few bites before their tummies were completely stuffed!
Lakshmi wasn't that crazy about the injira bread, probably because of it's sour taste. I was expecting the dishes to have more of an Indian flavor, and the green beans did, but it had it's very own special flavor. All part of the meal were; yellow dal, red spicy dal, spicy cabbage, green beans and carrots (fried), potato, pickled beets, collard greens and green mung dal.
It was certainly a feast before our eyes! And when you finished scraping away all the "curries", there is another injira bread underneath that had soaked up all the flavors and we ate that too!
I am sure I could make this type of food myself, but having all the different foods would be the hard part. Well, we sure had a wonderful dinner!
Jyotsna
