FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved
Food
by FFWD StaffIf you’ve ever felt tested by eating out (What's this fork for? Is that bowl for dipping, drinking or washing?), chances are you might like a cheat sheet for Ethiopian dining.
We gave these tips a trial run at the new Blue Nile Restaurant in Kensington, just up the street from the Marathon Ethiopian. Although unrelated, both places have good food, slow-ish service and very reasonable prices – the main difference is ambiance. While Marathon’s window seats are ideal for people watching, Blue Nile cocoons itself in a sweet old bungalow. The décor is simple and, as at the Marathon, it’s the masobe – stunning domed woven baskets used as tabletops – that give the room flair. Now, on to the study notes.
First, let the phrase "this is a leisurely meal" resound in your cranium. Arrive before you have built up a ravenous hunger. The food is cooked, not nuked, and cooking takes time. The slow pace suits the service, which is charming, and the way of eating, which is literally to break bread together. Blue Nile's menu offers food, not courses. There are 16 dishes ($3.50 to $10) to choose from – no appetizers, no soups, no desserts. No need.
Most of the dishes are what western cuisine classifies as stews, and that brings us to our second study note: Ethiopian is to stew as Japanese is to raw fish. A long culinary history has refined a simple dish into high art. Niter kebbeh is a key flavouring for stews. Spices like ginger, fenugreek, cloves, cardamom and hot peppers are simmered in butter, then the solids are drained off. The result is used as seasoning, as is a toasted spice mix called berbere.
To hold it all together is the crepe-like flatbread called injera (Blue Nile spells it ingerra – English spelling of Ethiopian dishes isn’t standardized just yet). You use the spongy, slightly elastic injera to scoop up what you eat. It’s commonly made from a tiny grain called t’ef, but it's rare enough in North America that for now the Blue Nile is using maize while they work on a t’ef connection.
Tibs is the simplest type of stew – basically fried meat. My friends and I ask for a beef Yebeg Tibs ($10). We’re ecstatic with the result. Served on a mini charcoal brazier, the grilled beef packs a delicious cardamom-enhanced heat.
Placed into the base of our masobe, the vegetarian assorted dish ($8.50) is a cheerful enamel tray draped with injera and heaped with a geography of Ethiopian vegetarian cuisine. The dish includes: buttery yellow cabbage, carrots and potatoes simmered to a delectable sweetness; several piles of lentils with seasonings varying from spicy to soothing; a sampling of spinach that disappears too quickly; a salad of chopped fresh chili peppers, tomato and shredded injera with a spicy sour bite. In the centre of these food hills lies a simply dressed lettuce and tomato salad. Our fingers galumph through the process: tearing the injera, encasing morsels of food and bringing it gracefully (er... napkins provided) to our mouths.
We also order the Yesiga Alich'a ($7.50), a mild, buttery beef stew with red onions, ginger, garlic and turmeric. This is like the bits of a roast that have fallen back down to soak in the juices – you can’t stop picking at it.
Unfortunately, the Blue Nile (309 - 10th Street N.W., phone 270-7936) is not wheelchair accessible. The only other downside is a large TV facing into the dining room. But the food is satisfying, flavourful and wonderful to share, and there are separate rooms for smokers and non-smokers.
| Back To This Issue Table of Contents | Back To Main Index |