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From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: Ethiopian food  (How hot is hot?)
Message-ID: <2971@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Aug-84 12:13:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.2971
Posted: Mon Aug  6 12:13:01 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Aug-84 00:29:37 EDT
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Here are some more descriptions of Ethiopian food.  Sounds great!

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I recently was at Jarra's Ethiopian Restaurant in Portland, Oregon. It was my
first visit to an Ethiopian restaurant, and I don't remember any of the names
for the dishes; but, I will try to describe them for you.

For main dishes, they offered one lamb (mild), one beef (hot), one chicken
(mild), one lentil (hot), one ground beef (hot), and three or four
combinations of main dishes. With the main dishes, we had a choice of
vegetables (cottage cheese, lettuce with tomatoes, and potatoes). 

We didn't try the lamb or chicken (we were there mainly to test out how hot
the hot food was). We got the beef and ground beef combinations that included
all of the vegetables and some lentils. The beef were strips that were cooked
in a very dark brown, thick sauce, and it was very good. The potatoes looked
and tasted like vegetable stew. The lentils were like a thick paste --
unimpressive to me. The ground beef was by far the best and the hottest. It
was offered either tartare or medium rare, and we had medium rare. The cook
complimented us on our courage for ordering the ground beef -- it was chance,
not courage. We each got one large plate with everything (including the
cottage cheese) on it in little piles.

The main reason the cook came out was to tell us how to eat the food (it is a
very small restaurant, and he came out to each of the tables). There was no
silverware offered. There was a plate of bread (sponge-like on one side and
smooth on the other). We were to tear off portions of the bread, roll them
into cones, and scoop up the food. We had to order more bread, so I think we
tore off too large of pieces.

My SO didn't care much for the ground beef -- he said it was uncomfortably hot
-- but, I thought it was great. Unfortunately, I had ordered the beef strips,
and was too full to eat much more.

Carlene Godfrey
tektronix!tekfdi!carleneg@

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All I can tell you about is my experience at one (the only) Ethiopian
restaurant in Boston.  The owner claims that she "is not as good a cook
as her mother", but the food was good enough to warrant a second trip.

The food served there is hot, but not blistering; I felt pleasantly warmed 
after eating it.  Like Indian cooking, Ethiopian seems to use many different
spices, but I would describe it as richer.  Most of the dishes we tried 
seemed to contain butter or oil (possibly palm oil?).

There are no utensils at the table.  Instead, you tear off a piece of 
the bread that is served alongside, fold it around a bite of food, and
pop it in your mouth.  The bread is flat, although slightly risen, and
baked only enough to set it -- it has no crust, and resembles a bubbly
crepe.

The menu listed both meat and vegetable dishes.  The latter included a
grain dish something like couscous and a thick lentil stew.

		Andy Behrens
		UUCP:  {astrovax,dalcs,decvax,cornell,linus}!dartvax!andyb