What is a Country?

First Stop: AFRICA. Wait... what?! Africa is a country?

The Adventurous Group.

 Nicole, Jordan, Morgan, me, Greg, Justin and Becca.

 Please note: Morgan is eating with the wrong hand! :)

The dinner party was a group of college graduates. A CPA, Partner of an ad agency, exercise science expert, professional photographer, aspiring firefighter, and a potential teacher all in one place. We're a talented bunch. However, I'm not sure any of us passed Geography 101.

We were sitting around the table, talking about how quickly we moved from the first discussion of this dinner club to the first meal. We were talking about all of the possibilities, the many different food types we'd get to try in the coming months. But wait. It turns out we'd already made a mistake. We started with Africa which, of course, is a CONTINENT. We were actually eating Ethiopian cuisine. I guess when we are headed to "E" we better revisit "A"!

(I don't think we are the next Vice Presidents but then again maybe we would be better than the one we have now :))

A few facts about Ethiopia:

Apparently, Africa is a continent.

• Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa and is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 
• It is the second-most populous nation in Africa with an estimated 80 million people. 
• Its capital is Addis Ababa
• It is the size of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico combined. 
• Official language is Amhric and is approximately 40% Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, and about 45-50% Sunni Muslims. 

Ethiopian cuisine consists of spicy vegetable and meat dishes, usually in the form of wat, a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is about 20 inches in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour. Berbere, a combination of powdered chile powder, and niter kibbeh, pure butter infused with garlic and other spices are important ingredients in many dishes. Ethiopians eat with their right hand, using pieces of injera to pick up bites. No utensils are used. 

And it Begins...

Curb Appeal.

Located in the heart of Seattle, Assimba Ethiopian Cuisine is highly rated, and served as the start to the alphabet challenge. Okay, so maybe it was not the nicest looking restaurant. One word to describe it... SHADY. Or maybe two words. SHADY & GHETTO. (Check out the classy white bars on the windows.) But overall we had an excellent time!

Are those white bars there to
keep people in or out?

  

The good news is that the inside was much nicer than the outside. It was a clean atmosphere, with friendly servers (except when we complained about the miscalculation in our bill). As with any place like this, I was a little worried about what the kitchen looked like. 

Hand wipes anyone? 

You must be dying to know what we ate.  Stew. Vegetables. Spice. Injera. Sounds tasty right? Injera? What the heck is that!? It's Ethiopian bread. It was sour and spongy, which was fine, but most of the table said it looked like "shaved sheep skin" or "skin on the face of a cow" (right, Justin?). It makes you want to try it, huh? When it was first brought to the table I thought I was supposed to wash my hands with it. Wrong. To eat, you tear a piece and grab a handful of meat or vegetables with it... yum, yum, yum.

Combo platter for six, please!

As I liked to call it, each "pile" is atop injera and is either a kind of meat or vegetable or a combination of the two. Starting with the dark brown pile (bottom center) moving left, we had:

•  wat (beef stew) 
• cabbage 
• ground chicken 
• spinach
• green salad 
• potato with red curry 
• cabbage
• lamb and vegetable mixture 
• spinach
• potato with yellow curry
• And in the center was spicy lamb with vegetable combination.

One thing I know for sure is, I am not a fan of slimy food. The cooked vegetables were too wet for my preference. (That's what she said) I would rather have it be a little firmer with a slight crunch. However, most of the meat selections were appealing. Hands down, the lamb in the center was my favorite. You could actually tell what you were eating! No really, it had a great texture, full of flavor, and even the vegetables were cooked just right. Wrapped in sheep skin, I mean injera, you had yourself a tasty bite!

My second favorite was the red and yellow potatoes. If you like mashed potatoes and curry, this is for you. They were smooth in texture, rich in spices and had a little kick in each bite.

Bud Light: Ethiopian Style

Lastly, the beef stew was palatable but should not be eaten with sour and porous bread, let alone your fingers. (What a mess when reaching across someone's plate to get a handful).

Overall, words like: AIRY, EARTHLY, ADVENTUROUS, INTERESTING and MESSY were used to described our thoughts on Ethiopian Food. Though we left hungry and anxious to use a fork again, we had a great time together (mostly because I was there with my purse full of home made dehydrated fruits to wash down our spongy bread), experimenting and introducing new flavors to our hungry palates.

Would I eat it again? I think so, but only in a special circumstance... like someone else is fronting the bill!

Cheers! See you in BRAZIL!