Re-trying Ethiopian food

[tighe]

My one experience with Ethiopian food, in a now defunct place on John, just east of Broadway, wasn't good and I've never given it a second chance. I didn't particularly like the spongy, doughy, flavorless injera nor the one-dimensional stewed meats and vegetables.

However, mamster's recent review of Blue Nile (not the online diamond retailer), has almost convinced me to give Ethiopian food another shot.

First, a few questions...

- Is all injera spongy, doughy and flavorless, or did I get a bad rendition?

- Blue Nile sounds like a good option, but does anyone have strong feelings about another place?

- Anyone interested in meeting for lunch sometime next week to help me take the plunge?

Edited December 8, 2003 by tighe (log)

[Comfort Me]

Oh, Man! I'm sorry your first experience sucked.

NO! Injera is not bland or tasteless. It is, however spongy. It is tangy and yeasty and should taste slightly fermented, which it is.

I love almost everything to be found on an Ethiopian menu. I am particularly fond of vegetables and legumes and find myself more and more skipping over the lamb and fish and heading straight for the vegetarian tastings. I especially love cabbage and potatoes the way they are prepared at Addis Ababa in Chicago! (Sorry, I've not spent time in the Pacific Northwest.)

Regardless of what you order, the flavors should never be one-dimensional! They should be robustly seasoned -- they should make your mouth sing! One look at an authentic Ethiopian recipe would leave you dumbfounded by the volume of spices used! I had one recipe which called for 1 cup of the spice mixture!

Go to the Blue Nile. Ask your server to guide you through the menu and point you towards their specialties. And I hope you enjoy yourself AND the food!

Be sure to report back.

[chuck]

I have recently come across a couple of good Ethiopian spots that you should try. That place off of Broadway sucked. Sorry you had to experience that...

The place I have gone back to half a dozen times is in Columbia City just off of Rainier. At the corner with the Starbucks (I'm sure that won't lead to confusion) take a left and it's on the left. Sparse interior but cheap, plentiful, and hearty food. Get meat.

Just once tried the restaurant on the corner of 14th and Jefferson. Accidentally got a vegetarian platter but it was great. Lots of variety (within the confines of lentils and vegetables) and plenty of food.

Sorry I can't remember the names of these places...

Injera is a really interesting item, being both starch and fork. Some of it soaks up what's on top of it and is mushy, but the real stuff should be firm enough to wrap around saucy bits. The thing I've noticed about injera is that it never contains salt. This is probably why it seemed tasteless. Hell, that's why it is tasteless. The seasoning in whatever you eat with it should be strong enough to make up for it.

Also, I've heard that injera swells up in your stomach so that if you've crammed what seemed like a reasonable quantity down your gullet, and then you wait 10 minutes, you will feel like lying down with a pillow under your back. If you drink beer with it, which you must, you may be in actual danger of exploding. That's why I get it to go.

[Suzanne F]

Right: injera should never, ever be tasteless. At the very least, it should taste like a sourdough pancake -- because that is precisely what it is. And now that teff (the grain it's made from) is being grown in the US, there's no excuse for phony, tasteless injera. As HWOE likes to say, he loves a place where you get to eat the food, the napkins, AND the tablecloth.

Ethiopian food is actually very complex in its flavoring -- not just a lot of spice, as Comfort Me mentioned, but a lot of spices in each blend. One thing I miss about a place where I no longer work is that one of my staff was Ethiopian, and she used to bring me food, and ingredients, and spices from time to time. Yum! Hmm, now I'll have to dig out my jars of barley flour and mit-mit!

[reesek]

tighe -

eithiopian is addictive when good - disappointing when bad.

i've had both in seattle - sadly, sometimes at the same restaurant! i'm a vegetarian so my knowledge is slightly limited...i ate meat at kokeb, but that's gone now. things to try...good lentils are lovely and creamy yet spicy - bad ones are hard...we go to Laibela at MLK and Cherry - Meskel / Mesob ? is re-opening down the block soon - supposed to be great. Laibela is very good - unless the food is cold. i love good ethiopian enough to persevere - the injera at Laibela is very good. spongy yes, but not tasteless - sourdough was a good descriptor...i love the collards and any lentil...yum. i've been wanting to try blue nile.

also - fascica in columbia city - went once - good food - appalling bathroom. can't go back after seeing that...irrational? maybe - but i can't do it.

[Placebo]

Meskel used to be my favorite and I'm glad to hear that they'll be re-opening. Lailibella is perhaps even better than Meskel and is up on Cherry and MLK. The place on 12th somewhere between Madison and Marion is pretty weak. There's a few other places ariound that neighborhood that I still need to try out.

[BastilaShan]

There's also an African or Ethiopian restaurant near the Pike Market, on 1st Ave. It is next to the Bagel place, i think.

The food there is quite decent and the spongy bread isnt tasteless from what i recall. Service is slow though.

[reesek]

the one very predictable characteristic i've found at ethiopian places here is glacial service. this is NOT the "quick bite before a movie" option. but berbere makes it all worth while

[mamster]

The other predictable characteristic is that it's unbelievably cheap. Once we took a big group out for Ethiopian and it came to $6 per person including tax and tip (only a couple of people had drinks).

tighe, I've only tried a couple of the First Hill/CD Ethiopian spots, and I've heard some are better than Blue Nile, but Blue Nile is pretty good; I especially like their doro wot and lentil dishes. I agree that the place off Broadway (Queen Sheba) is quite bad.

[duckduck]

Just one more person putting in my two cents...I love Blue Nile! It's an occasional craving that nothing else can satisfy. I usually split a combo plate with my dining partner and we find that we like the opposite things on the plate so it works perfectly. It's plenty of food for two. I love the spicey beef and the collard greens. It is definately far from tasteless. Good stuff, Maynard!