Fine Dining

Last night was so much fun. I was really scared about how spicy the food would be and took a preventative dose of Pepto on the way. The restaurant actually had the traditional "basket" tables, but we chose a regular American table since we had to get used to just using our hands (in Ethiopia, you can only use your right hand and you have no plates or utensils). It was tough to master tearing off a piece of injera (a spongy pancake looking sort of sour bread) and then scooping up some of the wat (a thick stew). We tried a number of things: beef sambusa and lentil sambusa (a thin pastry filled with beef or lentils cooked with green peppers, onions, and herbs; dabo colo (wheat nuts); katangna (fried injera, buttered and sprinkled with berbere (red pepper); and three types of wat (thick stew): kay wat (prime beef cubes simmered in berbere sauce seasoned with exotic spices), Yebg wat (pieces of lamb slowly simmered in spicy berbere sauce, garlic, onion, and butter), and Yebeg Alicha (tender pieces of lamb braised very slowly in turmeric sauce with touch of ginger, garlic and green pepper). I was very pleasantly surprised. My favorite thing was the lentil sambusa and the non-spicy lamb wat (I will have to clarify next time which one is the least spiciest). The Kay wat wasn't too spicy, but the other lamb wat set my mouth on fire, although everyone else thought I was nuts. We are both excited to go back and try some more of the foods.