A big part of any culture is food, and Ethiopian food is one of the most distinct and unique cuisines in Africa!
The core of the diet centres around dishes with a stew-like consistency, which are served family-style on top of a spongy flatbread called injera.
This spread is a little more elaborate than you normally see. Typically there is no bread or other garnishes - the stews are just dumped directly onto the injera. More rolls of injera are served on the side, however, which individuals can spread out on their own plate.
People sharing a meal will rip off pieces of injera and use a few fingers to pinch it around a bite of the different dishes. Many are called wat.
Tibs is very popular, with diced beef or goat meat often cooked with tomatoes and jalapenos. Shiro is another common dish made of chickpea flour and other spices.
Some ingredients we typically enjoy at home are also common in Ethiopia, including rice and pasta.
When we travel to Ethiopia, we typically eat in restaurants that serve both traditional Ethiopian fare and more Western foods that Canadians would recognize, such as pizza and fish and chips. Usually there are some fun surprises, such as canned tuna as a pizza topping!
We are really spoiled in Canada, with so many different foods that aren’t native to our country right at our fingertips in the grocery store aisles. There isn’t always the same availability of fresh foods in Ethiopia, so you have to be prepared that a meal listed on the menu might not actually be available.
A typical view of street vendors in Ethiopia.
It’s not unusual to pick three or four options as you peruse a menu, in case your favourites aren’t possible.
Bread - called dabo - is often served before a meal or alongside your dish with a very spicy dipping sauce, a paste made from hot peppers. It is vibrant, delicious and HOT!
At breakfast, there are lots of eggs, usually some form of sliced bread or buns, and then Ethiopian dishes like firfir, which is small strips of injera that have been mixed with spices and a stew-like dish to soak up all the delicious flavours!
An Ethiopian breakfast - rice, noodle and cabbage dishes, plus firfir in the bottom corner. Coffee on the side, of course.
We found that many restaurants will repurpose last night’s leftovers, producing some interesting - and very delicious - noodle and vegetable dishes at the breakfast buffet. Potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables with noodles or rice is especially common, sometimes even with some beef or other meat.
Sadly, injera is becoming less common in the daily diet of some rural families, because the demand for teff flour to make the spongy bread is driving up prices. Many Ethiopians use a mixture of teff and another type of flour - perhaps sourgum or wheat - to cut down on teff and the cost to produce.
Our Group Home Mom, Mulu, makes her own injera every three days. As soon as she’s done, she mixes up the next batch to allow it time to sit and ferment. The batter is poured on a hot griddle, almost like a huge crepe. See Lisa try her hand at injera-making below after a demonstration by Mulu!
The best snacks are in-season produce like bananas (you’ve never had a banana so flavourful and sweet!), oranges, avocados and mangos. Toasted corn and other dried foods, like seeds, are sold in small packages at all kinds of little shops along the street.
Coffee is a major export and a huge part of the culture. When you visit someone’s house, the hosts immediately want to make you a coffee. But this doesn’t involve flipping on a coffee maker or popping a pod in the Keurig - it’s back to basics.
The coffee ceremony starts by roasting fresh coffee beans over an open fire, grinding them in a mortar and pestle, and then mixing with water in an intricate clay coffee pot called a jebena. Grass is spread on the floor to set the stage for the traditional ceremony, and bread and popcorn are offered alongside. Coffee is strong and served with lots and lots of sugar in small cups.
Shelley, Lisa and Tilahun enjoyed that delicious fruit juice! This was layers of papaya, mango, avocado and strawberry puree.
One of our very favourite Ethiopian treats is a fruit juice layered with avocado, mango, strawberry purees.
We also enjoyed a spectacularly delicious “honey tea” at a new restaurant inside a hotel in Soddo, Ethiopia. The Lewi Restaurant specialty is a layered drink, a hot lemon and ginger tea with a large serving of honey on the bottom. Our amateur detective skills also identified pineapple juice in the mix.
Of course we could never cover this country’s incredible cuisine in just one blog post, but we hope you got a little taste (pun intended!) of Ethiopian food.