riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (08/01/84)
One kind soul decided to respond to my questions about Ethiopian food. Here's what he said: >> There is an excellent Ethiopian Restaurant just off 7th in Trebecker >> (spelling?) in NYC, they claim to serve the hottest chicken dish in >> NYC. It is called the Abyssinia. >> >> I have eaten lamb and beef there and found it beautifully spiced - I >> would say that ginger was an important ingredient. It seems to be >> similar to Arab/Persian cooking, to some degree. >> >> The traditional way is to eat from a large shallow dish using some thin >> large pancakes resembling latex doylies (if you can imagine that). You >> would have a couple of dishes (food not crockery) in the center and >> share with the other guests (grab a chunk of pancake, use it to pick up >> a piece of meat and eat it - mop up the gravy afterwards). >> >> Enjoy. If the Abyssinia is anything to go by, I'm sure you will. >> >> marcus (marcus@pyuxt.UUCP) --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (08/06/84)
Here are some more descriptions of Ethiopian food. Sounds great!
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I recently was at Jarra's Ethiopian Restaurant in Portland, Oregon. It was my
first visit to an Ethiopian restaurant, and I don't remember any of the names
for the dishes; but, I will try to describe them for you.
For main dishes, they offered one lamb (mild), one beef (hot), one chicken
(mild), one lentil (hot), one ground beef (hot), and three or four
combinations of main dishes. With the main dishes, we had a choice of
vegetables (cottage cheese, lettuce with tomatoes, and potatoes).
We didn't try the lamb or chicken (we were there mainly to test out how hot
the hot food was). We got the beef and ground beef combinations that included
all of the vegetables and some lentils. The beef were strips that were cooked
in a very dark brown, thick sauce, and it was very good. The potatoes looked
and tasted like vegetable stew. The lentils were like a thick paste --
unimpressive to me. The ground beef was by far the best and the hottest. It
was offered either tartare or medium rare, and we had medium rare. The cook
complimented us on our courage for ordering the ground beef -- it was chance,
not courage. We each got one large plate with everything (including the
cottage cheese) on it in little piles.
The main reason the cook came out was to tell us how to eat the food (it is a
very small restaurant, and he came out to each of the tables). There was no
silverware offered. There was a plate of bread (sponge-like on one side and
smooth on the other). We were to tear off portions of the bread, roll them
into cones, and scoop up the food. We had to order more bread, so I think we
tore off too large of pieces.
My SO didn't care much for the ground beef -- he said it was uncomfortably hot
-- but, I thought it was great. Unfortunately, I had ordered the beef strips,
and was too full to eat much more.
Carlene Godfrey
tektronix!tekfdi!carleneg@
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All I can tell you about is my experience at one (the only) Ethiopian
restaurant in Boston. The owner claims that she "is not as good a cook
as her mother", but the food was good enough to warrant a second trip.
The food served there is hot, but not blistering; I felt pleasantly warmed
after eating it. Like Indian cooking, Ethiopian seems to use many different
spices, but I would describe it as richer. Most of the dishes we tried
seemed to contain butter or oil (possibly palm oil?).
There are no utensils at the table. Instead, you tear off a piece of
the bread that is served alongside, fold it around a bite of food, and
pop it in your mouth. The bread is flat, although slightly risen, and
baked only enough to set it -- it has no crust, and resembles a bubbly
crepe.
The menu listed both meat and vegetable dishes. The latter included a
grain dish something like couscous and a thick lentil stew.
Andy Behrens
UUCP: {astrovax,dalcs,decvax,cornell,linus}!dartvax!andybholt@convex.UUCP (08/15/84)
#R:ut-sally:-297100:convex:34100008:000:3736
convex!holt Aug 14 17:34:00 1984
With all this talk of Ethiopian food, we (infoswx!charisse and I)
just had to try some. The result?
MAJOR YUMM!
We sampled the food at the Queen of Sheba restaurant, Lemmon Ave at McKinney,
Dallas,Tx. We brought back a take home menu and thought that everyone might be
interested in the food names, menu descriptions, and what we tried. By the
way, the cook/owner also waited on us, and allowed us to try various
small quantities of menu items other than the main courses which we ordered.
I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone wishing to sample Ethiopian
cuisine.
The menu: (my comments after ***)
1. Doro Wott, $5.00, Delicious, highly spiced hot chicken stew made
with onion, red hot pepper (berbere), pure butter and imported spices
served with spiced egg, yogurt or cottage cheese.
*** very good, but my least favorite (not spicy enough!)
2. Minchet Abesh, $5.00, Ground beef cooked with onions, red pepper, butter
and assorted herbs, highly spiced stew served with cottage cheese.
3. Minchet Abesh Alicha, $5.00, Ground beef cooked with onions, green pepper,
ginger roots, garlic, highly spiced butter served with green or house salad.
4. Zilzil Wott, $5.00, Beef strips cooked with well seasoned special home
made sauce served with house style salad and cotage cheese.
5. Kitfo, $5.95, Ethiopian style carefully selected lean beef, chopped and
prepared with specially seasoned butter, spices and very hot pepper (mitmita)
served rare or medium with side dishes of green and cottage cheese.
*** YUMM, The cook suggested that I try this dish as it would be eaten in
*** Ethiopia, (with the beef uncooked), so I did. Well, I can tell you
*** that I loved it, but boy, was this a spicy hot dish! tears ran down
*** my face! A real good choice for the adventurous!
6. Lega Tibs, $5.75, Carefully selected beef from special cut seasoned and
fried with onion, green pepper and spices served with house salad or shiro
woot.
7. Yebeg Wott, $5.95, Lamb stew cooked with onions, spicy red hot pepper
(Ethiopian berbere) butter and herbs served with cottage cheese and house
salad.
8. Yebeg Alicha, $5.95, Lamb stew cooked with onions, garlic, green pepper,
ginger roots and butter served with misser wott and salad.
9. Yatakelt Wott, $4.50, Fresh vegetables prepared with onions, green beans,
carrots, potatoes, vegetable oils seasoned with garlic, ginger roots, and
green pepper served with house style salad.
10. Gomen, $0.95, Collard greens or cabbage cooked with onions, garlic,
green pepper and herbs.
11. Misser Wott, $3.50, A vegetarian favorite lentil stew prepared with fine
herbs, onions, hot pepper, served with cottage cheese and Jalapino pepper.
*** Charisse's favorite, not as hot, but very entertaining flavor.
12. Azi Fa, $0.95, Lentil, splitpeas and lemmon sauce with pepper served
cold.
*** A close second behind the Kitfo. Not as spicy, but very, very good!
13. Beyaynetu (Combinations), $6.50, 2,4,9,11,12, cottage cheese and house
style salad.
14. Gin Fil Fil (Banatu), $4.00, Diced injera in one of the stews
15. Sambusa, $2.25, Made from dough and stuffed with lentil, ground beef,
onions, green pepper (Jalapino) and herbs served with another dish or
by itself.
16-20, Italian foods, including Lazagna, spagetti, pasta alfurno,
cote leti di polo or di carne, panino
*** The bread which the food is served on is "injera", and is very
*** interesting in itself. It is eaten just as utsally!riddle says,
*** with your hands; you tear off a piece and scoop up some of the
*** main course with it. I hope this enlightens a few souls (or stomachs)
*** seeking ever new culinary delights.
Dave Holt
Convex Computer Corp.
{allegra,ihnp4,uiucdcs,ctvax}!convex!holt