I’m a foodie but have somehow missed out on Ethiopian food. So today for the first time ever I’m going to try some for lunch at a well-reviewed local place.
For those of you in the know, what should I try/avoid? I don’t mind spicy, but I can’t take a “Dave’s Insanity” level of heat.
You’re expected to eat everything by scooping it up with bits of this damp, spongy, gluey bread. Have plenty of beverage to keep it from sticking in your esophagus.
I would simply try telling the server: “I’m new to Ethiopian food, but I’d like [chicken/fish/beef/lentils/goat] and moderate spiciness, would you make some choices for me, please?” This is what I always do, so I end up with some amazing food that I’d never pick for myself because I’m too ignorant of the cuisine to know what’s what from a menu.
The downside being that I never know what anything is called, so I can’t order it again. I swear, one of these days I’ll remember to bring a pen and pad of paper in with me.
Do try the *tej *if you drink alcohol. It’s a honey wine, and it’s like drinking sunshine.
I’ve only tried it once and I would suggest by “spicy” it does not necessarily equate to “heat”. I found that the spicy aspect wrecked havoc on my digestive tract but none of it was “hot”. Sure was tasty though!
It was the longest afternoon at work in my entire professional career.
MeanJoe
At the Ethiopian restaurants I’ve been too, you can get a selection of different dishes–all vegetarian, all meat, or a mixture. It’s pretty spicy. The food is served on a thin soft flatbread–you eat by tearing the platter (injera bread) and scooping up the food. Injera’s a sourdough bread; if you don’t care much for sourdough, use smaller pieces of bread to scoop up your food (I had a friend who hated Ethiopian food until she started using smaller pieces of injera).
If you can have alcohol, have tej, which is a honey wine, kind of like mead. It’s very tasty.
They probably have some kind of sampler platter; I’d go with that. I also tend to forget what everything’s actually called, but it tastes great.
“Foodie”? No such word.
Ethiopian food is a group activity, not something you can go do alone. I like to go to one of DC’s many fine Ethiopian restaurants with three or four relatives and order every other thing on the menu. They dump it on a sheet of sponge bread. Rip off a bit and scoop up whatever looks tasty.
I’m pretty adventurous in my food tastes, and at my daughters urging of a restaurant that was recommended to her we tried one in the Adams Morgan district in Washington DC. Interesting and unusual textures esp. the rubber-like bread, but overall the experience left me cold. I don’t consider myself a food weenie but this stuff was just not that tasty.
I really like shiro, doro wat and the lamb/goat one. Yum.
It can be very similar to Indian food-they have daal like stuff (including a fabulous red lentil mash that’s spiced with red wine vinegar) and their spinach dish tastes quite a bit like palak.
Most ethiopian restaurants will have “sampler” plates on the menu, kind of like a thali so you can try multiple things. I find what works best (provided at least two people are going) is that one person gets the veggie sampler and one person gets the meats sampler. But don’t miss out on the shiro, whatever you do.
Anu
You don’t get Ethiopian in Adams Morgan! You should have gone to U St. Dukem is a good place to start.
I cam in here to recommend the fish wat. There used to be an Ethiopian place right down the street from me. It was in a beautiful old building and the wat was really very good. The place is gone now. I wonder if they have moved somewhere else in town.
Did anybody else read the OP as " Going to an Episcopalian restaurant for the first time"?
Sir! You have insulted Meskerem - the finest Ethiopian place in DC, located in scenic Adams Morgan!
Pistols or rapiers?
BTW, I once ate at an Eritrean place in Chicago; seems to be just like Ethiopian, so far as I can tell.
Makes sense. Eritrea was part of the Ethiopian Empire, made a colony of Italy for 60 years and then was a province of Ethiopia until 1993. Geographically, it’s right up on Ethiopia’s borders, so I’d expect their ingredients and cooking techniques to be very similar, if not identical.
If they have it, be sure and order their Ethiopian coffee. It’s close to Arabian coffee in that it’s thicker, darker, and with spices added, but IMO it’s got this great smooth taste that sets it aside. Might just be “my” Ethiopian place though.
I like Ethiopian food, but I can’t recommend specific dishes, because I usually go at lunch time to a local restaurant that does a buffet at lunch time. Being vegetarian, I look for the no meat dishes. Their food is terrific. It is on the spicy side, but I really enjoy moderate spiciness.
I love Ethiopian food - I was so spoiled in Dallas with the Queen of Sheba restaurant, still the most fabulous Ethiopian restaurant I’ve ever been to. Definitely order a sampler, it will probably be served communal style on a large round plate lined with injera. Injera is the spongy crepe-like bread, made with a grain called tef. I love it! I am actually not fond of the bland dishes which are made up of potatoes, carrots and cabbage so I skip those. Bring on the spicy lentils! And the fitfit and silssi and gomen!
Sigh - anybody know any great Ethiopian places in San Diego?
Ethiopian food is delicious. Another recommendation for tej. I have a very high tolerance for spicy food, with that proviso I haven’t found the food to be hot. It may be nicely spiced as in flavorful but it’s not like going to a Thai or Indian place and saying “Gimme something really hot”.
Don’t wear white or long sleeves - you will be eating with your right hand, using injera to scoop food from a communal platter at your table. Getting some sauce on you is inevitable.
Go with some friends and go hungry. I’ve never seen a small dish at an Ethiopian restaurant.
Don’t laugh, those people do white bread and mayonnaise like nobody’s business!