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Ethiopian food and service is as unique as is the country itself. The traditions here are authentic, and all around you are the scenery, the music, aromas, food, art, history and culture of this ancient civilization.
Traditional basket tables (Mesobs) are in the huts, to fully experience Ethiopian communal dining. Knives and forks are absent as you pick at the food with pieces of Injera the Teff-grain flat bread that will hold the various spiced meat and vegetable presentations known as Wats or Wots.
Foremost is Dorowat chicken breast in onion-sweet, spicy barbecue-like sauce which has no tomato. Instead it has a sophisticated spice combination known as Berbere – hot red peppers, ginger, rue seed, sacred basil, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and bishop’s weed are among other spices individually prepared and grounded together in the exotic blend.
A particular favorite is Tibs, small chunks of beef, lamb, chicken or shrimp sauteed in onion, rosemary and spiced butter. Kitfo and Gored-Gored, other favorites among Ethiopians, consist of raw beef mixed with Berbere sauce. Vegetable dishes are also varied and exotically spiced, reflecting that Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are vegetarians for up to 200 fasting days per year.
Combination platters have been structured to give a broad spectrum of the variable food varieties. Desserts are limited, as sweets are not part of the culture. Hence, ice cream is known as “Missionary’s Delight.”
Tea (Shai) and coffee (Buna), however, are part of the culture. The spiced-tea water hardly needs tea leaves, and coffee is very special – coffee originated in an Ethiopian province known as Kefa. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony is a special event – an elegant, leisurely, after-dinner social occasion with religious overtones and roots antedating Christianity itself. The ceremony is offered here as a gift of the ages from the land of 13 months of sunshine, Ethiopia.