Ethiopian Cuisine.

I'd never had it before but whenever I was on my way to LACMA (and this has been true every time for years) I'd pass through Little Ethiopia and wonder. What's it like? Would I like it?

I asked friends they all said similarly, "It's like Indian food."
But Ethiopia isn't near India at all.
"Yeah."

Well I was curious but then I got scared. The bread. The spongey, crepe-y injera bread--why's it SOUR? I don't eat this kind of grainy stuff--would it make me sick? I like Middle Eastern food a lot but that makes me sick. I can eat at a dirty place and NOT get sick. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to avocados but I eat those anyway. So who the hell knows? It's all a gamble.

Oh well, I knew it was likely I would not be falling in love with it, but I'd be forever curious if I didn't go. So I did.



Here's the exterior of Messob. I thought it was kind of cute.
An experienced friend said that all the Ethiopian foods on this block are very similar (Rosalind's, Merkato, Nyala, etc.) as far as food choice and quality, but they all looked like they had their own style.


Empirical fans will recognize Alex.
Here he is holding my dinner. Lentils, chickpeas, collard greens, chopped-up/sauced injera. This is the veggie combo. We all had vegetarian meals. There's a photo of the sambussa on my Flickr.(sorry, no there isn't and I don't want to look for it.) Those were okay. They're like Hot Pockets but filled with crumbly lentils. It's a little weird.

You can see they put us in the nice partitioned off area in the front of the restaurant. That was fun. It was cold in there though. My food cooled off too fast and I was put off by the lukewarm temperatures. I didn't have my sweater so I put my jacket back on.

When ai pohaku and I mentioned that we were newbies, the server was patient with us and helped us with translations and made suggestions. This is all familiar to Alex, who knew to order the Ethiopian beer, Harar. I tried a sip. Interesting! The iced tea I ordered was watery but it came with lime. I drank it anyway.



Wow! Leftovers. This food is filling.
My microwave got fried during an electrical storm last week so I haven't been able to reheat this stuff. My food's been sitting in the fridge for 2 days and will probably get thrown away. I already know it's not great when it's cold. Here's the check.

I can eat Ethiopian food. Now I know. Yet, I'm in no rush to go back though. Why would I? There's an Indian place down the street from the house and I like that way better. I see the similarity in that they are both overcooked vegetables but the flavor is completely different. Maybe another region of Africa. I'd be interested in exploring.

What's next? I've never had Cambodian food...which is funny since I seriously considered going to Cambodia next month. I should probably at least read a pamphlet or something. This is all part of my goal to try something (hopefully more than ONE thing) new in 2010.