When we lived in Corpus Christi, we became friends with several international students from Taiwan. One thing they did was take pictures of every meal they ate. At our house, at their house, at a restaurant...it didn't matter. They wanted to document everything for when they went back to Taiwan. It would've been nice if we had done the same thing. We had so many delicious meals while we were in Ethiopia, but we have few pictures of them.
Our favorite thing was the traditional food, especially the shiro. The taste (and sometimes texture) of the traditional food is different and takes some people a while to get accustomed to, but not us. We had traditional Ethiopian meals at least once a day for our entire stay, even though there were other options. Dishes included wat, tibs, shiro, gomen, and even kitfo (raw or barely-cooked ground beef), all eaten with wonderful injera. It is kinda what we were going for here, but so much better.
We were also able to experience some of the traditional Ethiopian beverages. Ethiopia considers itself the birthplace of coffee. There is a legend about how coffee was first discovered and an elaborate coffee ceremony, but we will save that for another post. I will say that, despite neither of us having a real affinity for coffee, we both really enjoyed the Ethiopian coffee as well as the macchiatos, which were also quite popular. Our guide also insisted that we try the tella (beer) and tej (honey wine/mead). The tej had an especially unique, yeasty flavor. Just like much of the food, I'm sure it is an acquired taste.
In Ethiopia, Italian food is very popular due to the 5-year Italian occupation in the late 1930's. For this reason, many restaurants offer both traditional Ethiopian and traditional Italian food. Along with spaghetti and lasagna, we also had some really good pizza and some fairly bad pizza while we were there.
American influence is also obvious. We ate at one restaurant called New York New York Cafe and had some delicious, although different, hamburgers. Here is where we also experienced avacado juice for the first time. If you ever see it on a menu, we would highly recommend ordering it. The most American meal we had was probably our first ever experience at In-N-Out Burger. Not sure if it is a legit In-N-Out or not, but after almost 2 weeks in Addis, the greasy fast food was both welcome and delicious.
Our favorite thing was the traditional food, especially the shiro. The taste (and sometimes texture) of the traditional food is different and takes some people a while to get accustomed to, but not us. We had traditional Ethiopian meals at least once a day for our entire stay, even though there were other options. Dishes included wat, tibs, shiro, gomen, and even kitfo (raw or barely-cooked ground beef), all eaten with wonderful injera. It is kinda what we were going for here, but so much better.
We were also able to experience some of the traditional Ethiopian beverages. Ethiopia considers itself the birthplace of coffee. There is a legend about how coffee was first discovered and an elaborate coffee ceremony, but we will save that for another post. I will say that, despite neither of us having a real affinity for coffee, we both really enjoyed the Ethiopian coffee as well as the macchiatos, which were also quite popular. Our guide also insisted that we try the tella (beer) and tej (honey wine/mead). The tej had an especially unique, yeasty flavor. Just like much of the food, I'm sure it is an acquired taste.
In Ethiopia, Italian food is very popular due to the 5-year Italian occupation in the late 1930's. For this reason, many restaurants offer both traditional Ethiopian and traditional Italian food. Along with spaghetti and lasagna, we also had some really good pizza and some fairly bad pizza while we were there.
American influence is also obvious. We ate at one restaurant called New York New York Cafe and had some delicious, although different, hamburgers. Here is where we also experienced avacado juice for the first time. If you ever see it on a menu, we would highly recommend ordering it. The most American meal we had was probably our first ever experience at In-N-Out Burger. Not sure if it is a legit In-N-Out or not, but after almost 2 weeks in Addis, the greasy fast food was both welcome and delicious.
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