Ethiopian Food Again

My wife and I discovered, a number of years ago, that we like Ethiopian food. Our first taste of Ethiopian food was in Chicago, when we went with friends to an Ethiopian restaurant on the north side of the city. I still remember what I had: zil zil tibse, strips of beef marinated in a very spicy butter-based sauce.

Since then, we've eaten at a few Ethiopian places in Dallas, but they tend not to last. The first place we ate at in Dallas was called Queen of Sheba and they had wonderful food...and a very nice staff. But one day when we went there for dinner, it was gone! Then, another place popped up in the seedier section of North Dallas/Garland, and it too had good food, but it was gone in a flash, as well. We went there with my nephew and, among the the dishes we had, gored-gored was one of our favorites...or maybe it was kitfo. I can't decide which was which. The one I liked was made of raw chunks of beef in a very, very spicy sauce. The waitress asked repeatedly if we were sure we wanted raw meat...hard to convince her, but she finally acquiesced. The place closed, though...so we found another, but we were concerned that it, too, would close because we had visited it. We felt some sense of responsibility for putting all the Ethiopian restaurants in Dallas out of business simply by visiting.

Anyway, Queen of Sheba just came back...same owners, so we assume the food is the same. We hope. I stopped by today to pick up a menu. Sure enough, zil zil tibse, kitfo, gored-gored, and another old favorite, doro wott, are all on the menu. My wife and I have tickets to a play in mid-December in Addison, and we discussed tonight having dinner at Queen of Sheba that night. I'm ready to go there for breakfast tomorrow! But they are not open for breakfast.

Most Ethiopian foods are, in my admittedly limited experience, rather spicy, though not necessarily hot. I like the hot stuff, but it doesn't have to be hot for me to like it. Oh, I'm looking forward to eating Ethiopian food again! The food is served on large platters, which are covered with a large piece of injera bread (a sponge-like, thin bread that tears easily). The food ordered is placed in little piles on the injera bread; you then tear up pieces of injera bread that is delivered separately, using the bread as a utensil to pick up morsels of the food. It's delightful!

I think I've written about Ethiopian food on my blog before. Such is life. I am limited in my experiences; just a dull guy.

I can't remember the names, but there are a couple of Ethiopian restaurants (at least) in the Adams Morgan district of Washington, DC that are superb...in case you're in the area!