Ethiopian food suggestions

elainecroft
elainecroft Posts: 595 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Going out tonight with some buddies, so I'm looking for suggestions to order. I like spicy food and am ok with both meat and vegetarian. What is tasty? What is healthy? What is NOT healthy that I should avoid?

Replies

  • elainecroft
    elainecroft Posts: 595 Member
    Anybody have serious suggestions? I need advice here!
  • 40mpw
    40mpw Posts: 75 Member
    I tried to find a bigger copy of this poster, but this is the best I can do: http://shop.cherryblossomcreative.com/know-your-ethiopian-print

    When I go, I share the vegetarian platter and some tibs. Always tasty, but I have no idea if anything is actually healthy. Enjoy!
  • sarahu23
    sarahu23 Posts: 1 Member
    @MrM27 - way to show your ignorance.

    Elaine, I have two girls from Ethiopia, and we've visited the country a couple of times. We also eat at Ethiopian restaurants regularly. Their food is served over injera (a spongy-like sour "bread" that's thin). Most of the time we go, we kind of get a "family style" platter that has several different foods scooped onto injera. IT's hard to explain. :) Almost anything is good. I'm vegetarian, and my favorites are ShiraW'et (chickpeas with seasoning), Kik Aletcha (yellow split peas), Miser W'et (lentils), and Tikle Gomen (cabbage). The names of the dishes may be different though. For meat entrees, Doro W'et is very popular. It's chicken legs in a sauce basically. Any of the "tibs" are good - it's just chunks of meat with the sauce/stew. My hubs likes the beef tibs. The best advice I can give you is just to go and enjoy the experience. I've never had anything I don't really like. I'd get a sampler though of some sort if you can - that way you can try different things, and if there's something you don't like, you don't have a whole plate of it. :) Have fun!!!
  • elsyoommen
    elsyoommen Posts: 155 Member
    there's a chicken dish with hard boiled eggs - all in a tasty red sauce. I don't know what it's called. I would recommend this if you are on a high protein diet.

    the Injera (fermented spongy bread made from tef) is tasty so easy to eat a lot of it - be careful with that.

    If you like strong coffee, nothing is better than the kind you get at an Ethiopian restaurant or home.
  • Unknown
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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Anytime I've gone out for Ethiopian it has been with several other people and we tend to just order a bunch of stuff for the table rather than specific dishes for ourselves...kinda the same as Indian or Thai...so hopefully you'll get to try several items and your plate will look something like this...

    ethiopian-food.jpg
  • Cindyinpg
    Cindyinpg Posts: 3,902 Member
    Double post.
  • Cindyinpg
    Cindyinpg Posts: 3,902 Member
    @MrM27 - way to show your ignorance.

    Elaine, I have two girls from Ethiopia, and we've visited the country a couple of times. We also eat at Ethiopian restaurants regularly. Their food is served over injera (a spongy-like sour "bread" that's thin). Most of the time we go, we kind of get a "family style" platter that has several different foods scooped onto injera. IT's hard to explain. :) Almost anything is good. I'm vegetarian, and my favorites are ShiraW'et (chickpeas with seasoning), Kik Aletcha (yellow split peas), Miser W'et (lentils), and Tikle Gomen (cabbage). The names of the dishes may be different though. For meat entrees, Doro W'et is very popular. It's chicken legs in a sauce basically. Any of the "tibs" are good - it's just chunks of meat with the sauce/stew. My hubs likes the beef tibs. The best advice I can give you is just to go and enjoy the experience. I've never had anything I don't really like. I'd get a sampler though of some sort if you can - that way you can try different things, and if there's something you don't like, you don't have a whole plate of it. :) Have fun!!!
    It IS a very common stereotype. I can't count how many times my mother told me to clean my plate, because of the starving children in Ethiopia... I still feel bad some days if I leave food on my plate.:grumble:
    Edit to fix quotes I messed up.
    [/quote]
  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
    Mine is all west Africa, but OMG I loved the Nigerian food, There was also a big Lebanese influence where I lived and that food was of course heaven.

    I'm not much help though because what I miss is the simple street fare. I loved getting fresh roasted corn, this spicy roasted meat (who knew what kind) on a stick wrapped in newspaper, jollof rice, okra soup (if it wasnt too viscous), and of course the chicken.

    MMMMMM you brought up a lot of good memories...thanks.

    And how could I forget the mangos and guava!
  • elainecroft
    elainecroft Posts: 595 Member
    Thank you everyone (well, except one - you know who you are) for the suggestions. I love the image with the explanations of the different types of food too. Looking forward to an interesting evening - will report back!
  • elsyoommen
    elsyoommen Posts: 155 Member
    hi - how was your experience with Ethiopian food? I just ran across an article on Teff (that's the grain that Injera is made from) - I learned that it is gluten free. I was very happy to learn this - it's tasty stuff!

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