i have read in many sources that the mark of a serious food town is its ability to support an ethiopian restaurant.

 

i’ve never been to one, and i always meant to check one out in some other city, because i wasn’t aware of any in florida, much less tampa. but now we have one so we checked it out.

 

this is going to be short, because i have no real idea what we had. pam and i went with phil and kristen, and the place was packed. we started with an appetizer of something that was hummus-like. it wasn’t called hummus, tho. it was buticha, and it was a little thinner than hummus, but still made from chickpeas. pam said it tasted a little like egg salad, and i buy that. there was a tangy, mustardy thing going on that i would associate with egg salad.

 

i got the doro wat, which was a chicken leg and a hard-boiled egg doused in a very spicy, brick red sauce. it was sneaky hot. it almost didn’t even hit me until we left how hot it was. it came with a side of split yellow peas and collards spiked with beef.

 

oh, and no utensils. the platter that your meal arrives on is covered with a bread call injera, then the components of your meal are on top of that. you rip off a piece of bread and pick up your food inside the bread to eat. i loved this. pam wasn’t as excited. mostly because she didn’t like the bread. it is a different texture. very spongy.

 

pam had chicken tibs, which was curry-like. i have no idea what the sides were. and i have no idea what phil and kristen got, tho i know phil got beef and kristen got the vegetarian sampler, which looked like a compilation of all the vegetables from the rest of our dishes.

 

anyway, i’ll go back, and hope to become more literate on the subject. i don’t think pam is going, tho.