I’m getting an AirBNB a couple blocks away from little Ethiopia in LA over the holidays. I’m sure I’ll explore a little. Just want to know what food is accessible to a typical midwestern american couple. I like flavor but don’t particularly like heat. This may very well be my only life experience w/ this cuisine. What dish is a slam dunk, guaranteed gonna like it? Thanks for all your help.
I suggest you just get a combo; they usually consists of several different vegetable dishes and one or two meats. Individual servings of each item will be pretty small, so you’ll get a good taste of many different dishes. It all comes on a big injera with big dollops of the different stews. You will be provided additional rolls of injera which are your “utensils”; tear off a piece, pinch some food, and eat.
IME it’s always quite clear on the menu what is spicy and what is not. Generally most of the spiciest items will be meat, but that’s not a strict rule.
Ethiopian is one of my wife’s and my favorite cuisines. We have an Ethiopian restaurant in our area that’s fantastic. As DCnDC mentions, getting a sampler meal is probably your best bet. We always get the all you can eat “Ethiopian Feast” which gives a wide range of different vegetables to try, and a couple meat dishes. This way you get small portions of many different things and then you can ask for seconds (Or thirds) of only what you like.
As for the heat, i don’t think of Ethiopian food as particularly spicy hot. Certainly not as hot as say, Thai food. There are plenty of non-spicy choices available-ask your server, or as mentioned if you get a “feast” type sampler you can try everything and see what you like. Enjoy!
If you like coffee, and they offer a traditional Ethiopian coffee service, do it!
Agreed to go with the sampler. It’s generally a wide variety and more than enough food.
Ethiopian food is delicious, enjoy!
Another vote for getting a sampler. I’ve loved Ethiopian food anytime I’ve had it; and enjoyed the novel way to eat it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Seconded. In a restaurant on Fairfax in L.A., they roasted the beans when you ordered it! Smelled all to be damned during roasting, but that coffee was GOOD! There was also a pastry appetizer made from lentils that I could have eaten a hundred of.
Sadly, aside from appetizer and coffee, the meal itself was a bust.
Our favourite dish is called tibs firfir yebeg. It seems a bit strange, as, along with eating it with injera as your implements, it has torn up pieces of injera mixed in along with a very delicious lamb onion green pepper mix. You can also find it sans firfir, which is the torn up injera technique - tibs yebeg. And if you’re not a lamb eater (crazy!) you can find it featuring other meats.
Another vote for the sampler, never been to an Ethiopian restuarant that didn’t offer one (if not a buffet spread).
Not trying to hijack, but I need to ask, have you ever sampled a dish called (off the top of my head not sure its correct) kifto raw beef? I have a set of Jeff Smith cookbooks in storage and there is a recipe, well, recipes, for this dish in one that I always wanted to try but, raw beef :eek:
Kitfo is amazing. Most places also offer it lightly cooked, and it’s still delicious.
Kitfo is awesome. I had reservations about it myself (Is kitfo safe to eat? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board) but upon trying it at a restaurant I trust, I was very pleased with what I was served.
Raw beef is safest if you get good, fresh meat and chop/grind it yourself from whole muscle i.e. a steak, and of course handle it with clean hands and clean utensils/tools.
If you’re still uncomfortable with raw/undercooked beef, you can cook it (gently!) and still get the overall flavor profile; the rawness is really more about texture than flavor, although cooking definitely has an effect, flavor-wise.
Have you never had steak tartare? Raw beef dishes (assuming the source and preparation are trustworthy) can be delicious!
zombywoof, never have had steak tartare. The closest thing to raw meat I’ve had was prime rib at a company Christmas party one year. I would say it was walked past a fire on the way to my plate certainly, as it was at least blood temp, but not much more than that. It wasn’t my thing, but it wasn’t bad either.
The kifto though, it fascinates me, it taxes my imagination with how this culture developed and came up with this dish. I just have never been able to find anyone around here willing to take the plunge with me and try it.
DCnDC no way doc, if I’m gonna do it, it’s gonna be as right as I can get it. No light cooking if I can ever get someone around here to give it a try with me.
No, I don’t know if they even have it on the menu at the Ethiopian restaurant in our area, but it sounds like something I’d try, especially when I was younger. I used to get kibbeh niyeh (raw ground lamb) from a Lebanese place fairly often when I was in my 20s, and enjoyed it. These days I’m a little more leery of raw meat though…
there are one or two Ethiopian restaurants near me, I’ve been meaning to try for a long time.
Do not drink the tej.
I suggest you go as part of a larger group. The communal dining style encourages everyone to share their meals, so you get exposed to a wider assortment of food. I’ve always like the tibs. I’m a big fan of most of the lamb choices.
Totally do not drink the tej. Give it to me, instead.
Yuck – honey wine. You can have mine.
This thread inspired me to look for local Ethiopian restaurants, but it appears the last one closed in 2013. Now I’d have to drive to Chicago or Milwaukee.
I’ve been to Rahel Ethiopian Vegan on Fairfax three times for their lunch buffet; lots of legumes and grains and veggies, and spongy, slightly sour inenja bread to eat it with. (Forks are available.) I recall a bit of heat in some of the dishes but nothing super spicy, and I have a low tolerance for “hot” so I would have remembered if it was otherwise. They advertise an Ethiopian coffee ceremony as well.