COMPILED BY STAFF REPORTER
Ethiopia has a culture that stands apart from all the nations around it in every way, and that includes food. Ethiopian food is not only some of the most diverse on the continent, but also totally different to any other cuisine you may have encountered.
Whether it’s the spices joyfully bringing a tear to your eye or the slightly tart taste of the spongy injera (the thin pancake that accompanies most Ethiopian meals) sending your tongue into convulsions, Ethiopia›s culinary offering is utterly unforgettable.
Staples and Specialties
Eating Ethiopian-style means rethinking many things you might assume about eating. That’s because the foundation of almost every meal in Ethiopia is injera, a one-of-a-kind pancake of near-universal proportions.
At seemingly every turn, plates, bowls and even utensils are replaced by injera. A top its rubbery surface sit delicious multicolored mounds of spicy meat stews, tasty vegetable curries and even cubes of raw beef.
Other staples that are ever-present on most menus are the much-heralded wet (stew), kitfo (mince meat) and tere sega (raw meat).
Injera
Just like your first kiss, your first taste of injera is an experience you’ll never forget.
It’s the national staple and the base of almost every meal. It is spread out like a large, thin pancake, and food is simply heaped on top of it. An American tourist is said to have once mistaken it for the tablecloth. Occasionally, injera is served rolled up beside the food or on a separate plate, looking much like a hot towel on an airplane.
First impressions of injera might not always positive. The tangy taste can be unsettling for those not used to it, but give it another few mouthfuls and, for most travelers at least, it should start to grow on you. The bitter, slightly sour, taste contrasts beautifully with the fiery sauces it normally accompanies.
Like bread, it’s filling; like a pancake, it’s good for wrapping around small pieces of food and mopping up juices. It’s also much easier to manipulate on the plate than rice and it doesn’t fall apart as easily as bread – all up injera is quite a clever invention, really.
Although injera may look like an old grey kitchen flannel, grades and nuances do exist. With a bit of time and perseverance, you may even become a connoisseur.
With large Ethiopian populations living in Western countries many people will have tried Ethiopian food in their home cities, but take note that what often passes for injera there is not real injera at all.
Although you can get real injera outside the Horn of Africa, most of the time you will instead be served something made from a tef substitute. Injera made like this lacks the slightly fermented, tangy taste and the rubbery feel of real injera.
Kitfo
Kitfo is a big treat for the ordinary Ethiopian. The leanest meat is reserved for this dish, which is then minced and warmed in a pan with a little butter, mitmita (a stronger version of berbere, an Ethiopian spice mix with up to 16 constituent elements) and sometimes tosin (thyme). It can be bland, or tasty and divine. If you’re ravenous after a hard day’s travelling, it’s just the ticket, as it’s very filling.
Traditionally, it’s served just leb leb (warmed not cooked), though you can ask for it to be very leb leb (literally ‘much warmed’, i.e. cooked). A kitfo special is served with aib (like dry cottage cheese) and gomen (minced spinach).
In the Gurage region (where it’s something of a specialty) it’s often served with kotcho (enset; false-banana ‘bread’). Kitfo bets (restaurants specializing in kitfo) are found in the larger towns.
Another favorite meat dish is siga tibs, which consists of small strips of fried meat served with onions, garlic and spices. +Its most commonly served derek (dry), but you can also find a merek yalew version, which comes in a liquid sauce.
Considered something of a luxury in Ethiopia, tere sega (raw meat) is traditionally served by the wealthy at weddings and other special occasions.
Some restaurants also specialize in it. Not unlike butcher shops in appearance, these places feature carcasses hanging near the entrance and men in bloodied overalls brandishing carving knives.
The restaurants aren’t as gruesome as they sound: the carcass is to demonstrate that the meat is fresh, and the men in overalls to guarantee you get the piece you fancy – two assurances you don’t always get in the West.
A plate and a sharp knife serve as utensils, and awazi (a kind of mustard and chilli sauce) and mitmita (a powdered seasoning mix) as accompaniments.
Served with some local red wine, and enjoyed with Ethiopian friends, it’s a ritual not to be missed – at least not for red-blooded meat eaters. It’s sometimes called gored gored.
Wet (Stew)
The ubiquitous companion of injera, wet is Ethiopia’s version of curry and can be very spicy – fortunately the injera helps to temper the heat.
In the highlands, beg (sheep) is the most common constituent of wet. Bere (beef) is encountered in the large towns, and fiyel (goat) most often in the arid lowlands. Chicken is the king of the wet and doro wet (chicken stew) is practically the national dish.
Ethiopian Christians as well as Muslims avoid pork. On the fasting days of Wednesdays and Fridays, throughout Lent and prior to Christmas, as well as a further couple of occasions, meat and dairy dishes are avoided and various vegetarian versions of wet are available. Most foreigners become firm fans of fasting food.
Kai wet is a stew of meat boiled in a spicy (thanks to oodles of berbere, an Ethiopian spice mix) red sauce. Kai sauce is also used for minchet abesh, which is a thick minced-meat stew topped with a hard-boiled egg – it’s one of our favorites’, particularly with aib (like dry cottage cheese).
Most Ethiopians seem to be under the impression that all foreigners are terrified of spicy food and so, unless you specifically ask for kai wet, you’ll often be served the yellow-colored alicha wet, a much milder, and really rather dull-tasting wet.
Ethiopian Breakfasts
Popular breakfast dishes include enkulal fir fir (scrambled eggs made with a combination of green and red peppers, tomatoes and sometimes onions, served with bread), the omelette version is known as enkulal tibs, ful (broad beans and butter purée) and injera fir fir (torn-up injera mixed with butter and berbere, a red powder containing 16 spices or more).
Source: lonely planet
The Ethiopian Herald January 26/2021
