Sunday, October 4, 2009

Ethiopia Food Adventure

My wife and I went to an Ethiopia Outreach Ministry Banquet on Saturday.
Neither one of us knew too much what to expect as we never ever had Ethiopian food before. Would it good, would it be unbearable or perhaps way too spicy?

We went to learn not only of their food but also of their methods of raising money for the Ethiopians as we would like to do the same for single Filipino mothers one day.

It was held at a Mennonite church about a 45 minute drive from where we live.
It turned out to be a beautiful fall day for a drive. About 70 degree's with the sun shinning beautiful. The tree's are just barely turning colors with the start of fall here in Pennsylvania.

We arrived and was greeted by a nice elderly lady who had us sign in. To my surprise they had a name tag sticker ready for me with my first name as I had called the day before inquiring about their address. On the table was an offering box where we signed in and a good aroma filled the room. The table's were covered with colorful table clothes. Someone had asked if we ever had Ethiopian food before?
"No never, but I'm looking forward to trying it" I said.
So, a nice Ethiopian lady (who I could see was filled with the Holy Ghost, her eyes glowed bright) showed us to first take from a bowl a soft spongy sour pancake-like bread called "Injera" and unroll it and then take a serving spoon and put what ever food you liked on it. She allowed us to choose which foods we would choose. Of course I choose a little of each!



There I am with a little of each. Here is what each name of the food was on my plate:

Ke Minchet-Abish Wet- ground beef dish (Mildly hot & spicy)
Ingredients: onions, 90% lean ground beef, Ethioian spiced chili powder, Ethiopian spiced butter, cookingoil, false cardamom

Atikilt Alicha Wet- Vegetable dish (Neither spicy nor hot)
Ingredients: onions, garlic, cabbage, potato, carrot, bell pepper, canola vegetable oil, turmeric

Kei Ye'misir kikk Wet- Split Lentils Dish (Spicy)
Ingredients: lentils, onions, Ethiopian spiced chili powder, Ethiopian spiced buter, cooking oil, false cardamon, salt

Ye-gomen Wet- Vegetable Dish- Neither hot nor spicy
Ingredients: onions, freshly ground garlic and ginger, kale, jalapeno pepper, canola vegetable oil

Ye'doro Wet- Chicken dish- Mild hot & spicy
Ingredients: onions, chicken, hard boiled eggs, Tthiopian spiced chili powder, Ethiopian spiced butter, cooking oil, false cardamom, garlic,ginger, salt

Injera (soft spongy sour pancake like bread)
Ingredients: teff, a tiny, round grain that flourishes in the highlands of Ethiopia.

Well, there are no spoons nor forks used with this food. You simply use the Injera like bread and tear off a piece and scoop the food up and eat it. Simple, easy and fun.

It was quite an experience.I liked the De Minchet-Abish Wet the best and the Atikilt Alicha Wet was the most tasty vegetable dish.

I talked with the main organizer and learned quite a bit about how to organize such an advent. I'll be keeping this in mind for quite some time mixed with prayer on how we could do the same type of fund raiser.

I encourage you to try something new in your life soon. Make it an adventure like we did.

More Wealth and Riches in your life!

Dexter Black

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