Eat With Your Fingers
Nov. 22nd, 2009
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How long since you’ve sat at a table in a restaurant and dug into heaps of food with your fingers? I don’t suppose I ever have, and I guess I was in a high chair the last time I did it at all. I had the chance to play with my food in public last night and I can’t wait to do it againa.
Despite the best-laid plan to make dinner at home last night, my husband swayed me as we left the store to eat out by suggesting Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian restaurant I’ve long wanted to try. We leave for a trip to Eastern Europe in a few days, and we both want to load up on nutritious food before we put ourselves at the mercy of Czech and Slovak restaurants for 10 days. He knew I couldn’t resist on grounds of health – lentils are a star of Ethiopian food – or cost – two can eat for $20.
I knew it was a good call the moment he opened the door and the aroma of exotic, warm spices wafted out into the chill November night. I enjoyed studying the menu, full as it was of foods I’ve never heard of (good practice for travel, too!). We settled on the $18 vegetarian combination platter for two. In a new restaurant I love to be able to sample a number of offerings, and this provided a great way to do that.
Our platter was served family style, and bore a swirl of spicy fragrance that invited us to dive right in. The menu had explained: Commonly, Ethiopian food is eaten with your fingers by simply tearing off a piece of the Injera (Ethiopian flat bread), scooping your food with it and placing it into your mouth. It took a little practice, and some OxyClean on my white sweater when I got home, but I got the knack of delivering the scrumptious food to my mouth.
Our dish contained Misir wot (Lentil stew simmered in onions, garlic seasoned with turmeric and herbs), Atakilt (Sliced cabbage, onions, and carrots cooked to perfection in a mild tomato sauce), Gomen wot (Collard greens, onions and potatoes cooked to perfection with garlic in a mild sauce), a salad and Kik wot (Split lentils stew; simmered in onions, garlic, and berbere --Ethiopian hot spice made with red chili peppers).
This was served with the interesting Intera bread, a spongy, crepe-like means of scooping up the food. I wavered with each bite in my assessment of which dish was the best. I’m not especially a cabbage fan, but the two kinds of lentils and especially the extraordinarily good greens vied for my favorite with every bite. We cleaned our communal plate, aside from the layer of Injera that held it all. The waitress then helpfully informed us that that was the best part! I managed to find a little more room.
Though I’m super excited to leave on our trip this week, I’m just a little disappointed that I can’t eat at Queen of Sheba again until we get back.
Dana has eaten her way from Inverness to Istanbul, and from Monaco to Morocco. A food and travel writer, she lives to explores the world and tell stories of foods discovered and meals devoured in far-flung lands. She once hand-carried a tagine across three continents in order to recreate a Moroccan feast, her backpack smells of spices, and she has been known to smuggle butter home from Paris. Her most recent adventure was learning all about the duck at Camp Confitt in Gascony, France. When at home in Louisville she dishes on restaurant news for her column in the Courier Journal.
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