Specifically, meats that are left on the bone. I have no problem using the injera bread to pinch the cubes of meat or the lentils or anything else small like that. But every time I get Ethiopian food, I get one section of the combo platter that’s a meat on the bone. How are you supposed to eat it without a fork? If you try to tear it apart with the injera bread, the bread just breaks down in your fingers from the effort. Usually it’s too covered in gravy to look like you’re supposed to pick it up, but I’m starting to think that’s the only way. Any advice from expert Ethiopian cuisine eaters?
(If you’ve never had Ethiopian food and have no idea what I’m talking about, try it next time you get a chance – it’s usually little piles of meats or vegetables that you pinch with a spongy bread called injera – no silverware used. It’s fun and delicious, minus the one little problem described above!)
Personally, I always try to rip off a chunk with the injera, but that doesn’t work all the time. When it fails, I just figure “screw it” and grab the food with my hands. Why not?
I’ve never encountered that problem (I’ve only eaten Ethiopean food twice), but in my experience the bread isn’t enough of a barrier to keep your fingers clean, so there’s no real point in being afraid of grabbing something sticky.
This is what I’ve usually done as well. Eventually I just stopped ordering stuff with bones. I’ve yet to meet an Ethiopian dish I didn’t like, so there’s plenty of other options.
Can you pick up the bone with the bread and eat the meat directly off the bone? That will at least keep your fingers slightly cleaner than picking up the bone with your bare hand.
Me, I’d ask the waiter, since I’m a total Ethiopian novice (one time only) and don’t care if I feel a little silly asking someone how to eat food.
BTW, it IS really good food, if you get a chance, go.
I always get the veggie lunch even though I’m not a vegetarian. It’s way better, I find the meat quite bland and boring in comparison.
If faced with it, tho, I’d have no problem picking up the bone and gnawing the meat off (because it is exactly what I’d do at home). If it’s small enough, you could pop the whole thing in your mouth, chew the meat off and spit out the bone (the way folks eat Chinese spare ribs).
Back when I still ate meat, I found that the chicken was so well cooked and tender that I was able to pull it off the bone with the injera without needing to pick up the bone.
So, how is Ethiopian food, anyways? There’s a restaurant I walk back every day on my way to class that I often see and wonder about. I guess a childhood of hearing about the famines and countless guilt-inspiring christian charity infomercials haven’t exactly made me keen to try the cuisine of an ethnicity that used to be synonymous with starvation.
Here is a picture of an Ethiopian meal. The thing on the left - I don’t know what it is called or its cultural significance, but I am interested - it’s woven from straw and is a characteristic item found in Ethiopian places. It’s like a cover for your meal that they remove at the table.
They use a lot of a spice called berbere which is red and spicy and yummy. Most of their dishes are stewed for a long time and heavily seasoned.
A meal will come with a big piece of injera, which is almost like a really thin crumpet. It’s moist and a bit sour, and for most people it is something of an acquired taste. (My hypothesis is that most people expect it to be something like a tortilla (I was), and it is nothing at all like a tortilla except in shape. Once you get used to it as injera qua injera, it’s delightful.) It’s the only utensil you are offered at an Ethiopian restaurant (forks are available by request) so it’s easiest to learn to like it.
All Ethiopian restaurants I’ve been to offer combo dinners, which I quite recommend. If you order a combo, you will get a big piece of injera with little blobs of various kinds of stewed things on it. (and another plate of injera on the side). This includes lots of things made from various combinations of lentil / lentil flour / chick pea / chick pea flour; stewed potatoes / carrots / cabbage / collard greens / potato; ground meat (which I always find quite bland); cheese (likewise, bland: it looks like feta but it’s quite mild in taste); and aforementioned chunks of meat with the bone still in. There’s also green salad and usually a minced hot pepper.
They generally assume that you will be sharing plates (e.g. if two of you each order a veggie combo, they will bring you one big plate of veggie combo for two). I always get my own plate because my friends eat way faster than me and I never get my share. You eat by tearing off a bit of injera and using it to pick up bits of the other things. This takes some practice but there are always lots of napkins and wet-naps available.
A few other things to note:
they burn a lot of frankincense at Ethiopian places. Now, whenever I go to church on Christmas Eve (the only time I go) and they burn frankincense, I sit there through the whole service and think about Ethiopian food. Sadly, even in metropolitan multicultural Toronto, you cannot get Ethiopian food at midnight on Christmas Eve.
they have a really neat coffee ceremony, where they roast the beans at your table. It smells amazing and the coffee is really good. You need to order it before your meal so they can get it ready.
the one near my work has a great appetizer, they take a fresh jalapeno pepper and slice one side of it, dig out the seeds/pulp, and fill it with a mix of diced onions and tomato. It’s really refreshing.
I highly recommend that you try all of these things. The Ethiopian restaurant near my work could well be my favourite restaurant in the world. If you come to Toronto I’d be happy to show you.
Ethiopian food is NOT bland, oh hell no. A lot of it is hellaciously spicy. Kitfo, for example, will put hair on your chest, I don’t care what gender you are.
There are days when I would sell my soul for injera and Ethiopian lentil stew. You people who live where you can get it should thank your lucky urban stars.
The Ethiopian recipes in the old Frugal Gourmet’s On Our Immigrant Ancestors book are pretty authentic. He also includes recipes for the spiced butter and berbere sauce you need to make them. This is great because they keep for a long time and you can whip up a stew whenever you feel like it. There are also recipes for lentil stew and a version of injera using self-rising wheat flour that isn’t too hard to make. You can find most of the recipes on-line now.
You know, I have liked every kind of cuisine I have tried… except Ethiopian. some combination of the taste and texture of the injera, and the textures of everything else just made me want to quit eating it. And I’ve tried it a few times… at different, highly rated restaurants.
I feel kind of bad that I have an entire type of cuisine I just won’t try anymore.
As I’m so used to eating Mexican/American/Indian foods at restaurants and that’s it.
Are there chain restaurants, or you just have to look around for a specialty place?
Or is this something you can only find in a major cultured city?
I’d be surprised to find out that there are chain restaurants, or at least I’ve never heard of any. I don’t think you necessarily have to go to a really large city, though. Take a look in your phone book. I live in a city of a couple of hundred thousand, and we have at least one (and it may be only one, I’m not sure, but it’s a damned good one) Ethiopian restaurant.
Personally I alternate between using the bread, and using a fork (call me a wimp). I also don’t eat meat, so I don’t have the meat on the bone issue.
