1. Ethiopian flat bread – Injera
Injera sometimes spelled enjera is something that most Ethiopians can not live and imagine the day without.
You eat injera three times a day if you are an Ethiopian and even if you live abroad, you will still look for it at the local restaurants with in your reach.
I don’t know why we are so addicted to it, whether it is the ingredient or something hidden in it, not sure.
Of course you won’t eat injera alone. The stew is an important stuff you eat with. However, injera is the most important thing you don’t want to miss whatever the stew is.
For example if we take, shiro, a stew made of chickpeas or beans; you don’t want to eat it with bread or other things as it won’t give you the same taste and pleasure; you always want to eat all those delicious Ethiopian stews with injera.
Injera is a spongy slim, flat bread prepared from a very tiny seed called ‘teff’. Teff is an Ethiopian plant largely produced in the country’s central and northern highlands. It is usually sown in the rainy season and harvested in November.
Local residents buy the teff once the farmers take it to the market and process it in their homes. It takes three days to make a quality injera which is mainly of two types, a brown, and white all depending on the type of the seed they are from.
2. Ethiopian favorite cuisine – Shiro
Shiro is a stew made from chickpea or beans. It is something you can easily fall in love with.
It is my favorite meal like most of my friends. It is something Ethiopians can easily access and eat most.
There are different versions of shiro sometimes depending the season, fasting or non fasting days.
Wednesday and Fridays including several weeks of the year are dedicated for fasting by the Ethiopian orthodox church.
On the fasting days you can have Shiro – Tegabino a plain Shiro whilst on the non fasting days you can order Bozena Shiro, mixed with meat.
There are several restaurants in Addis Ababa or elsewhere that can prepare a mouth watering shiro that you could even want to eat twice a day.
3. Ethiopian colorful cuisine – Beyaynetu
Beyaynetu is an amharic word meaning “of all sorts”.
It is a combination of all sorts of available dishes served on injera the big flat bread on a tray.
Beyaynetu could be a combination of veggie or non veggie dishes depending on your interest and the season.
If it is fasting season, most restaurants prefer to serve you the veggie dishes.
If it is not or you want to have one, you can order the non fasting dishes all on the same plate. It is not only delicious but something colorful that you would even want to take the picture.
Not only you enjoy the delicacy but you want to keep the memories of it. Try it when you are in Ethiopia or at an Ethiopian restaurant in your area.
4. Ethiopian style steak – tibs
Generally speaking Ethiopians love to eat meat to the extent that many eat it raw. During holidays it is common to see many people at the cows, sheep and chicken market. You can not think of a feast with out meat.
Tibs ‘fried meat’ is what is favored by most Ethiopians. It can be prepared and served in different style. Tibs is one of Ethiopian cuisines you love to try if you will be in Addis. You can make a delicious meal if you learn to do it in an Ethiopian way or style.
Most Ethiopian restaurants know how to make a good tibs of lamb, goat, or beef. You can have a custom made style of each tibs by asking the chef or person at your service.
5. Ethiopian delicious cuisine – Doro
Perhaps the most delicious meals eaten with injera is Doro wet, a most sophisticated and considered to be the national dish of Ethiopians and sometimes expensive.
Doro means chicken and wet is stew. So Doro wet is a chicken stew, the one that Ethiopians crave for at the ends of the main fasting seasons.
It normally takes half to full day to make a good doro wet. Ethiopians prefer to kill the chicken in their house rather than buying it from the stores. They buy the chicken alive and kill it in their home. That is how you make and get the best chicken stew, starting it from the scratch.
Doro wet requires a lot of hot red paper and other ingredients of spices, butter, lots of onion among others. Then you serve it with boiled eggs according to the number of persons in the house hold.
This Ethiopian delicacy is usually prepared in holidays such as Easter. It is almost a must for most Ethiopian Christians to prepare the dish.
You will also love to have doro wet on new years, Christmas, and other important events and feasts such as weddings.
But it is not something you can find a good one at any restaurant in the country. You need to make a little research on the good quality doro wet. Some restaurants in Addis and other parts of the country serve a very delicious one.
And finally, do not forget to include the great Ethiopian traditional coffee ceremony.
No Ethiopian meal is complete with out taking part in the coffee ceremony. It will take you a little patience but I tell you it worth it and will be a great complement.
