ethiopian food

the mission specializes in tacquerias or overpriced hipster food.

*sniff*

pedant note: the slanted door is now (permanently?) located in south of market between the financial district and pacbell park.

um, if SF - cafe waziema for ethiopian and sawa for eritrean!!!

*dons kevlar vest*

Since I have not been to the DF to do the Pepsi challenge of tacos I have to bump it up on my list of PRIROITY DESTINATIONS.

So... if you are in TJ and want to try to very good tacquerias, go to: 1. Tacqueria Ermita in colonia Ermita/La Mesa and Tacqueria Franc (Zona Rio)... also, any of the stands will do in a pinch. I like the ones specializing in steamed cow head the best.

A shout out to you Adams Morgan brats! Is Madams Organ still around? I remember hanging out there when I was kid seeing bands. Also, Kilimanjaro. The last show I ever saw there before my move to NYC many, many years ago was a Bad Brains gig.

Surely it's not that horribly predictable of me to look in on discussions of Ethiopian food? :(

On 9 Mile, west of Woodward.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................

Adams Morgan = present and future Greenwich Village South. If real estate prices continue on their present tangent, these places will be forced out before much longer. Then the high-salaried hipsters who paid megabucks for AM pseudolofts will bitch about gentrification, without the slightest trace of irony.

A shout out to you Adams Morgan brats!

Madam's Organ yes,; Kilimanjaro no.
:^{

Even mediocre ethiopian food is classic. Also "Njera" is one of the greatest words ever.

The problem is: that's pretty much all the Ethiopian places in southern California. :(

first thing i did when i got back to london, went to the ethiopian restuarant in tufnell park. quite a mixed bag, my food was really nice, but my friends wasnt, and it did go a bit cold quickly, the bread was asbestosy as well.

so, while my part of the meal wasn't bad, it didnt look a patch on what the people in adams-morgan seemed to be eating:(

Mmmm indeed! the only time I went to one was in toronto and it was Mr carruthers who took me there. good times...

(An an Injera Bakery too!)

By using Triangulation I have worked out exactly where on the Cally you live now Dave. Not the floor, but the address.

How about the 930? I hear it is still around but not in the Atlantis building. How are the "new" digs?

Erm.

The best Ethiopian restaurant I've been to is in Central Sq. in Cambridge, Mass.--but I've forgotten the name.

Nabisco, how do you rate the Ethiopian food in Chicago?: My favorite is Addis Abeba, on Clark just south of Addison; it's pricier and slightly finer-dining than the one right across the street (Ethio-Cafe, which is mostly just a mediocre buffet of vegetable dishes), but it's worth it, in that the food is generally pretty excellent. (Of my extended family only one uncle prefers Ethio-Cafe, and he gets pretty excited about a good value, so...) Mama Desta's down by Belmont is pretty okay -- nothing really notable but generally good. My memory of the one up north (Ethiopian Diamond?) is sort of hazy, but I think it's about the same.

(Disclaimer: my judging of Ethiopian restaurants places a lot of emphasis on whether or not they have good kitfo.)

Crown Hotel, July 2007
http://i3.tinypic.com/2uei8hl.jpg
our party (I am in limegreen shirt at center, behind all the beer & tej)
http://i16.tinypic.com/669yeu1.jpg

My suggestion for lovers of Ethiopian food, which I may have already shared on ILX: buy a bag of berbere for your home.

This is a great suggestion. I have a good-sized tub of berbere that I picked up from the Ethiopian market across the street from Ethiopian Diamond, and I recently added some to an eggplant stew my girlfriend was making, and it gave it a great, hearty kick. This market is where we get injera, too.

Ate so much Ethiopian food on Sunday.

haha other people take pictures of ethiopian food too!

dinner last week, home made:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1288/1316404465_74807cd758.jpg

(wait not homemade injera but yeah the rest)

bell, the new-ish place on 3rd street (meskel) is supposed to be fantastic.

Any of the handful of Austinites been to the just-opened place by campus? I want to but am afraid of the newness of it.

hmm...field trip to meskel anyone?

YES!

y

ethiopian is one of my favorites and it's been too long. i'll go anytime!

i hope meskel has good honey wine. the stuff they served us at awash was just manischewitz.

haha. our last meal at awash was pretty meh, but my friend liked meskel so much that she went two nights in a row. i've heard that going on the early side is a good idea as it got a rave from the times shortly after opening and has been packed ever since.

awash = portions too small, and what there is of it not delicious enough.

i dragged the bf, who had never had ethiopian, to awash, after talking it up way too much. he was very underwhelmed. hopefully this will change!

there's a place in New Brunswick, NJ called Makeda and it's probably some of the best food I've ever put in my mouth.

Rock Hardy sadly OTM re: Abyssinia. It's ok, not great :/
Seriously, I think Makeda ruined me wrt Ethiopian.

HOWEVER the new place a couple doors over from Awash is intriguing. It's vietnamese but all the meats are buddhist fakery. So like they have fake meat banh mi. But that's for another thread.

The uptown Awash is totally solid -- never been to the village one. Meskerem by NYU = embarrassing.

Dimension took an Ethiopian with him to get food, and if y'all Noizers do a field trip, I'll expect you to do the same...

aw, of course!

Whereas someone gave Jergin a whole lot of ibe! This is the polite and generous way to say "are you sure it's not going to be too spicy for you?" -- a healthy helping of tart, cooling cheese.

xpost - I do, however, have a bad habit of eating all the kitfo before anyone else can get any

What is the thing that looks and tastes kind of like hummus? I had it at an Ethiopian place in Berkeley but haven't encountered it in Chicago.

OK I'm guessing it must be this (went to the menu):

Ye-Shiro Wät
Ground chickpeas simmered in a rich berberé (a mild blend of dried ground chilies) sauce and vegetable oil. Served with the veggie of the day.

It's probably shiro alitcha, actually. Alitcha = without all the berbere, less spicy, and will still be chickpea-colored, rather than red/brown like wat.

(Not specific to shiro -- the wat vs. alitcha situation applies to, like, everything.)

(There's probably also a significant difference in the amount of clarified butter involved.)

Sam, hopefully hitting Aster's tonight for dinner and will report back!

You're probably right, N., since it was in fact chickpea-colored and mild in taste.

So does wat basically mean that berbere is involved?

Basically, yeah. And once you know the difference between wat and alitcha, ordering just involves knowing the names of common foodstuffs: beg is lamb, siga is beef, doro is chicken, shiro is chickpeas, mesir is lentils, etc.

(Or, well, to get all technical, both wat and alitcha are starting from boiled-down onions and clarified spiced butter -- the difference is whether you're spicing it up with berbere or not. There is berbere involved in plenty of non-wat/alitcha dishes, too.)

(Which, incidentally: vegans should always check that vegetable dishes are made with vegetable oil instead of clarified butter.)

Nabisco, didn't you say NM food is (spicewise) kind of like Ethiopian food? If so, what is a good point of comparison (ie such & such dish reselmbles Ethiopian food)? I will never get the Ethiopian around here but some sort of spice analogy would be interesting.

(I am so extra addixted to this green chile & beef stew the have at La Nueve Casitas down the street...god I think I'll go buy some right now.)

oops, should read La NuevA Casitas

Yeah, it's the flavor of the peppers used in the spices. I guess maybe since the geography's kinda similar -- high mountains in warm places -- the Ethiopian ones are a lot like New Mexico ones. More smoky than tangy?

Oh man, I think I would really like this stuff.

Whereas someone gave Jergin a whole lot of ibe! This is the polite and generous way to say "are you sure it's not going to be too spicy for you?" -- a healthy helping of tart, cooling cheese.

-- nabisco, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 21:56 (1 hour ago) Link

lol no it wasn't really like that. in fact, everything was far less spicy than i expected it to be. next time i'll use jalapenos instead of serranos, and put more cayenne in the berbere.

and oh my god, the butter: so so good. i kept making jergins smell it.

since i made 5 dishes, each serving 6 - 8, we've got a freezer full of leftovers. we'll have ethiopian all autumn long.

If anyone is ever in Madison WI hit me up, we will go to Buraka and have many fine wats.

I'll bring me daughter for ETH-FACTOR.

Ned and I (and others) had Ethiopian last night, but they were out of shiro wot, but it was all right, we got something else instead.

Austin, Texas finally has good Ethiopian! At least to my untutored palate, Asters is damn fine. The injera was wonderfully soft and springy and sour, and the korro wat kicked butt. They served it in about five minutes, too.

uh, make that dorro. I've been blanking on the name and saying "korma" all day, and then having to look it up.

Mmm, good. I was just thinking of them again as I passed it on the way to work. Cheap? Moderate?

next thursday, nyc people?

yes. i'm in.

i'm cooking ethiopian food tonight. do i go with DORO ALICHA or DORO WAT? i have the spices and the butter. i'm not a very good cook.

Doro wat!

I think wat might actually turn out better for a not-great cook, too -- the strong flavor of the berbere could cover it up if you're not dead-on with the other parts.

Mmm, doro wat. How dare you make me hungry.

thanks, yeah. i need that covering up from the berbere!

You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans
I eat more gomen [than] any man ever seen

Ha.

Unrelated to that rhyme

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/food-dining/why-hasnt-ethiopian-food-gone-upscale/