Ethiopian Food: Part 3, The Drinks

Ethiopian Coffee - The Macchiato

Ethiopian Coffee - The Macchiato

 

It made me start drinking coffee. It’s delish.

 

Sprice Juice

The best juice I have ever had

The juice in Ethiopia is to die for. The above juice is the Sprice or mixed juice and is a particularly large one from New York cafe from Bole Olympia, Addis Ababa, in case you wanna make the trip. Sprice juice tends to be mango, papaya, pineapple, guava, avocado and orange juice. It’s incredible and if you were to try and make it in Ireland you would have to remortgage the gaff in order to afford all the tropical fruit. In Ethiopia it cost cents.

Saint George - My new favourite beer

Saint George - My new favourite beer

 

Saint George, the Ethiopian beer is seriously, seriously good. Seriously. You’d like it.

 

Special Tea

Special Tea

 

I heart special tea so much. As far as I could figure out it is hot orange and pineapple juice with honey and can include Tej which is a honey mead. It is the best thing I’ve ever had for a cold. I was a bit run down on my return to our fair isle and I spent my first week downing hot orange juice mixedwith honey. It’s still pretty good and is a great alternative to a hot whiskey.

 

 

Ethiopian Food, Part Two: Fasting Food

Members of the Ethiopian orthodox church fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. On fasting days people don’t eat meat or dairy. Speaking of dairy. This is how milk comes in Ethiopia. It was odd to request a bag of milk from the local shop.

 

Bag O' Milk

Bag O' Milk

 

Fasting food is typically a mixture of vegetables such as carrots, green beans, lentils, a sauce made fr0m chickpeas, tomato, a tomato sauce, potato, beetroot. It varies from place to place. Here are a few examples.

 

Rosa and Mikiyas Enjoying Fasting Food in Ethiopia

Rosa and Mikiyas Enjoying Fasting Food in Ethiopia

 

Fasting Food in Lalibela

Fasting Food in Lalibela

 

Mikiyas is the Training Director at Camara Ethiopia and took absolutely fantastic care of us. He even invited us to his home for a traditional Ethiopian feast prepared by his wife. It was absolutely fantastic and she prepared a mountain of food for us. Notice the mixed Njera and the brown njera. You roll them onto your plate, serve the other food on top of it, then tear off a piece and use it to eat the rest of the food…all with your right hand.

Ethiopian Feast

Ethiopian Feast

 

Mikiyas and his wife have a beautiful 2month old baby boy. He  is good enough to eat.  Nom, nom, nom. Cutiful.

Almost Edible Baby

Almost Edible Baby

Ethiopian Food Part One: Njera with Tibbs

As well you know I was off volunteering for the summer in Ethiopia, with an organisation called Camara. For a full breakdown of the trip and how it went check out ritacamara.wordpress.com

I was very excited about trying Ethiopian cuisine  as I had heard it was really unique. In my opinion they do beverages so so well but they have a long way to go with food. Sorry Ethiopia, I love you otherwise.

 

Ngera with Tibbs

Ngera with Tibbs

The picture above was taken the day the first container of computers arrived from Ireland. The Ethiopian volunteers were all working flat out unloading over 1,000 boxes from the container. Once the job was done and all the computers were accounted for we went for a feed in the local cafeteria. This is Ngera with tibbs. Ngera is the pancake type thing. All Ethiopian food is served on it. It’s made from Tef flour which is particular to Ethiopia as far as I know. it’s very high in iron and it’s eaten with every meal. It has a sour, bitter, yeast like taste but when eaten with other foods it is quite good and I have to say I was a fan of it by the end of my five weeks. Tibbs is the meat, it’s beef, and depending on where you get it, it can be quite grizzly. It’s cooked with onions and green peppers (capsicum) and a mystery spice or spices. I wasn’t crazy about it.

 

Tef Flour

Tef Flour - The Main Ingredient for Njera

 

The picture above was taken at Lalibela market. It’s tef flour which is the key ingredient for njera. you’ll notice the different colours, the darker one is used in brown njera and has a milder taste than the white njera.