Wow. How timely. I’ve been really curious about the Ethopian place downtown. Hopefully we’ll be going this weekend. Thanks, Teela
Just get a sampling and don’t forget the salad. Man it is sooo good.
I’m with astro. Pretty boring culinary experience, if you ask me. Most people I know who have gone to Ethiopian places aren’t making a point to go back.
Nothing special about the spice combinations. The textures are interesting, but just because they’re different, not good. Spongy bread. Come on. Anyone really want to compare that stuff to a hot slab of naan coming out of an Indian kitchen?
As to tej. Look, we have the capability to make that stuff here. There’s a reason we don’t: because beer and wine are better.
Ethiopian will never catch on like Thai, Indian.
Sure, I’ll try. Naan is to hearth baked artisan bread as injera is to crepes. Two completely different things, both delicious in their own right. If you going in thinking of the two as directly comparable, then yes, you’re going to be put off.
Bread and crepes are two different things. Injera is one of those things that would never have been invented if they didn’t live in a poor country and have to eat it.
Now, we use some breads in other cuisines for picking up veggies, and meat. Similar things that we’re “used to” would be using tortillas to eat fajita meats, or using pita bread to eat schwarma.
It would be like saying, “ok, make me some naan, but take out the eggs, the sugar and the milk.”
You don’t do that because you have the choice.
I went yesterday for lunch. I quite liked it, but it was not a case of adoration.
It’s a new place in San Jose, run by what could be the world’s sweetest, most helpful woman. She’s the cook, waitress, cashier and cultural guide. She prepared for me with her own hands a lamb and onion stew, and served it on a platter-sized injera with some salad. I loved the injera, which was pleasantly stretchy, chewy and sour. The lamb stew was good, but not stellar, as it was a bit tough and its tart seasoning didn’t contrast enough with the tart injera. I do intend to go there again and try a vegetarian or fish offering.
For you San Jose dopers, it’s Rehoboth Ethiopian Cafe on 6th Street just north of Japantown. It’s well reviewed on yelp.com, which motivated me to try it.
Injera reminds me quite a bit of a properly fermented but too-soft dosa, or more accurately, an uttapam. They are made with different grains, however.
There are way more Indian breads than just naan.
teela, I hear the Ethiopian in Oakland is supposed to be much better-my friend took me some place last time I was there, which is when I discovered the magical properties of shiro.
Ethiopian is by far my favorite ethnic cuisine. I was lucky to grow up in the DC area, and now we have a very good restaurant in Tempe.
But a lot of delicacies got their start that way. Polenta started out as peasant cuisine, too, but lots of people who have other choices eat it.
I vaguely remember that about 7 years ago, if you wanted Ethiopian, Adams Morgan was still a good destination. I could be misremembering the situation, though.
I tried Ethiopian twice about seven years ago, and didn’t care for the bread. I’m supposed to go again with a group of friends this weekend although we are going to try the place on 9th and U. I don’t recall the food being particularly spicy and it wasn’t spicy hot at all to my taste.
You misspelled “Miracle Whip”.
Those of you who don’t like the injera bread- send it to me. I love it. But I prefer sourdough to white bread, too…
There was (maybe still is) a great Ethiopian place near the corner of Telegraph and Alcatraz, near where Mr. Neville used to live, called Cafe Colucci(sp?). Terrible service, but the food was worth it (it was usually best to get takeout, or bring something to read). They made a dish of collard greens and jalapenos that I absolutely loved. I’ve never seen it at any other Ethiopian restaurant, and damn I miss it…
No, sorry, this is just not factually correct. Teff, the grain which injera is traditionally made from, is in fact a rather expensive grain in Ethiopia. Other cheaper grains are substituted by poor people to make a dish much like injera, but the original dish is rich people’s food. Teff injera is “real” injera, and injera containing wheat, barley, corn or rice is a poor man’s substitute (much like real vs/ artificial crab meat here in the U.S.).
I’m not trying to convince you to like it - you like what you like, and that’s cool. But no one ever said it was na’an. Even the name “bread” is a misnomer - it has far more in common, chemically and culinarily - with a pancake or a crepe than with a yeast leavened bread. It just doesn’t seem like fair fightin’ to blast it for not being like something it isn’t.
Teff is an expensive grain?
The staple food of ethi-freakin-opia? Of which the wiki page says, “Because of its small seeds (less than 1 mm diameter), one can hold enough to sow an entire field in one hand. This property makes teff particularly suited to a seminomadic lifestyle.”
Doesn’t exactly strike me as green gold.
Now, I haven’t actually been to ethiopia and tried to purchase it, but just because “poi” costs a lot in the supermarket in Hawaii doesn’t mean that taro root is an expensive tuber either.
So, can I assume that this delicious injera we eat in stateside Ethiopian restaurants is made from that expensive grain? Because that stuff seems pretty cheap to me.
I’ve only eaten Ethiopian food once, at the Empress Tatyu restaurant here in Cleveland, Ohio. I liked it very much, especially the goat dish and the spongebread. I don’t remember anything being particularly hot but found that, er, um, all the beans had the predictable gastrointestinal effect on me. And there were a lot of beans.
I tried not to remain in any confined spaces for about a day after my meal.
Heh, maybe this was it. I do remember a spicy collards dish, and the inattentive service was definitely memorable. It was in 2006-I had just finished sitting out the California bar and had a friend I wanted to see before I flew back. She lived in Oakland and knowing I love Ethiopian, suggested this place. And the food was freaking AMAZING (especially the shiro, which we had to order separately).
I guess I love it because it reminds me of Indian food, different, yet richly flavoured in its own right. The problem I have with cuisines like Nepali, Tibetan and Afghani (though I enjoy going because the restaurateurs are just so damn sweet) is that they taste either like weak, inspid-flavoured Indian-Chinese or Indian-Middle Eastern combos. I’d rather just eat Indian, Middle Eastern or Chinese rather than Nepali, Tibetan or Afghani.
Ethiopian and Middle Eastern I enjoy specifically because the flavours are always bold and unique in their own right, rather than reminding me of Indian Lite.
Yes.
The Ethiopian government banned the export of teff for a while back in 2006, but I think the teff is flowing again. It’s also cultivated in the US. Ethiopian cooks have had a bit of trouble perfecting injera here, and generally use a percentage of other flours, but try to keep the teff content as high as they can before things get sticky and burn while cooking.
OK, impressive teff research.
Makes me wonder how teffed up the injera I’ve had here is.
Just thought I’d let you know that this thread made me so hungry I’m going for Ethiopian with the ladies tonight 
There’s a really good Ethiopian place in Silver Spring on Georgia Ave.