We were enjoying an avocado juice at the Extreme Café, a Muslim establishment known for its cakes, when out of the blue, a man whisked in and raced full speed toward us.
He bent down, kissed our tabletop then disappeared as quickly as he had come. Even without a common language the waitresses joined us in some perplexed gestures and shared a laugh.
The Extreme is the place for cakes but we have found them stale and tasteless and been put off by the flies. Their juices are excellent. Usually only avocado with lime is available though once we had an avocado/papaya blend that we still dream about.
A new refrigerated cake case appeared on our last visit however and we have decided to remain optimistic and order a cake for the Christmas party we are planning to hold in our shared classroom in late December, perhaps on Christmas Eve.
Ethiopian Christmas is not until January so we thought we would do a Canadian/British party for our colleagues. Lately we’ve begun to brainstorm the decorations and Shelagh has decided to save the toilet roll cores for angels.I am thinking of some foil-covered stars. Desserts are not a normal feature in Ethiopian meals but a cake would be special.
Apart from the Extreme cakes the only other dessert we have tried is the “Pan Caak” at the Lal Hotel, a thickish undercooked crepe with a dab of jam inside scented with kerosene essence from the burner. Not recommended.
The Lal is the only place in Woldia that serves Western food as it caters to foreigners either traveling through on business or tourists en route to see the sights of Lalibela. We go there for dinner every couple of weeks and have noted great improvements. This Friday lovely new tablecloths with matching napkins appeared in the dining room, perhaps in anticipation of the tourist rush over the holidays. The Lal is the place for chicken, if available. Fried, “rosted” or Doro Wat are all worth a try.
“Rosted” chicken with carrots and sweet potato and doro wat on injera.
It is not wise to get to attached to a menu item however as it is often “not available”. Sometimes it is better just to ask what they have tonight. The “Paper Stack” on the Lal menu is likely pepper steak but we seriously doubt it would be recognizable “if available”. For dessert we have moved on to having fried potato “chippes”. They take 35 minutes to come so we order them with the meal and have them at the end. If we are lucky a tiny but very fat mouse puts on a floorshow.
Service is good at the Lal. I was particularly impressed when the waiter, noticing I was stashing our bottle caps in my bag, asked why. When I told him I was collecting them for use in college to demonstrate primary math number games, he produced about 3 dozen more for my collection. A bonus feature of the Lal is the sit-down toilets, the only ones in town; we recently hit the jackpot with running water, seats, flushing, lights and soap all in one go. Prices at the Lal are about double the other places with dinner for two, including 4 beers costing about $8.00 Canadian. Speaking of beer, there are about 6 brands here but St George’s has become our drink of choice. Maybe this huge sign that dominates the Piassa has seduced us.
There are a number of dining spots for Ethiopian food and until this afternoon our favorites were the Mechere and the Yordannes.
The Mechere has large mirrors that can be somewhat startling to people who have not looked in a mirror for weeks! On Saturday afternoons a crowd gathers to watch Ethiopian Idol here on the TV.
The “spageetti” comes with a fiery tomato meat sauce to complement the perfectly al dente pasta. I believe the would-be Italian colonizers left this pasta legacy. It seems to be a staple on Ethiopian menus, along with “makeroni”.
Other favorites are Kai Wat (sheep with spicy sauce on injera) and their tibs (fried bits of sheep meat with/without sauce on injera). The cats that wander amongst the tables look well satisfied.
The Mechere deck is also a pleasant spot unless children take notice and start to yell “China, China” at us. I must say I have never been mistaken for a Chinese person before but I guess all foreigners are lumped into one category. There are a few Chinese road workers in the vicinity, though we have not met any.
Across the street, the Yordannes has a lovely inner courtyard, the cheapest bottled beer and very nice cats.
We have taken to their Bayanatu on Friday nights. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians do not eat meat on Wednesdays and Fridays and this vegetarian combination offers a tasty sampling of vegetables and pulses on injera. Many Ethiopian restaurants back home in Vancouver serve a similar “vegetarian combination plate” but here there is more variety.
Our colleagues recommended the patio at the Obama Hotel so we said “Yes,we can!” and headed over.
It was pretty dark at the Obama as it was lit only with some fairy lights around the trees. The single choice that evening was the ubiquitous fried meat dish known as tibs, served on injera and eaten with the hands. The sheep meat, while quite chewy, was tasty enough and nicely flavoured with sprigs of fresh rosemary.
More casual dining can be found at the WAW on their second floor deck, a favourite place for a makeeato because they dust the top with cocoa, a product unavailable here in the shops. Their cocoa comes “from Addis” I was told.
This past Saturday we decided to have a late breakfast out at the WAW after we had been to the bank and post office. It was such a thrill to get mail this week and Shelagh sat enjoying her letters, one of which included a bizarre British tabloid story about a woman with pink hair who dyed her cat’s fur to match.
(By the way, we LOVE mail so feel free to send letters, cards, bizarre newspaper stories and scrap pictures from old magazines to us. My address is on the “Contact Marian” tab at the top of the blog. You will be rewarded with a reply in a cool Ethiopian airmail envelope with interesting stamps and a souvenir St George’s beer label!)
While Shelagh read I poured over the menu…
Shelagh opted for the scrambled eggs, feeling very proud that she knew how to recognize them on the menu. I was in the mood for something different so asked a man at the next table about an item with lots of curly letters in it. My “chechebse” turned out to be a very large portion of something pasta-like doused in butter spiced with hot berbere and honey. Shelagh always carries plastic bags in her backpack so we were able to take my leftovers home and heat them up to have for dinner with some coleslaw.
Today the power went off around 9 AM so after hanging about moping with no coffee we decided that lunch out would be in order and headed to the Tensae Hotel patio to what turned out to be the BEST meal yet in Woldia. There was no menu but we saw what looked good on someone’s table and asked about it; they said it was called “arosto” and was roasted meat. We were in food heaven when we got a platter loaded with yellow rice (likely from tumeric) topped with fried potato discs and heaps of quite tender BBQ lamb. Two tasty sauces came on the side, one mild with grated carrot and one tomato and chili hot. And the always present dabo (bread) which came home in the bag for breakfast…
It was so good that I was motivated to look up how to say “That was delicious” in my Amharic phrasebook.
Later in the afternoon we met Hanok for our bi-weekly Amharic lessons on a rooftop deck in the Adago. We practiced restaurant dialogues so we can venture out with confidence to more dining spots. Nothing like hunger to motivate one to learn to read a menu and compliment the chef!
Bon appetit from Woldia!
Hi Marian! Just talked about you with Maureen and Don! They said the Ethiopians they met in Sudan were particularly well-educated and polite people when they lived in Darfur.
Eating sounds like an adventure in itself!! But I’m sure you’ll be enjoying every bit of it 🙂 And get used to that chicken: soon I’ll be on Nevis, and that’s going to be the main dish as you remember! Lots of love and happy American Thanksgiving.
Now that I know you have a serious interest in magazine articles about people doing really bizarre things……..and to think how easily I dismiss the tabloid coverage I see near checkout stands here!!!! You and Shelagh sound like regular gad-about-towns, checking out all the local hotspots, drinking anything on offer, causing a sensation wherever you go! Is there a local tabloid where the foreigners make an appearance?
There are no newspapers or magazines for sale here so we are in a media blackout apart from online news headlines and the odd glimpse of the Ethiopian TV news in a cafe….still, when we do hear news it seems like things are pretty much carrying on as usual. From afar the Vancouver news seems full of stories about crime and punishment, the weather and the latest political theatre of the absurd!
Marian
Excellent tour of the local haute cuisine. I love the photo with the St George’s billboard – what a complex scene – what are they all waiting for?
I have no idea what they are waiting for, perhaps just there to watch the passing parade in the nearby roundabout or maybe a bus is coming by!
Marian
Hello Marian, That was the most fascinating “restaurant crawl” I have ever done (vicariously, of course)! I am surprised there are that many choices in such a small area. I imagine your palate will be quite changed by the time you come”home”. This is my birthday “week” so Maggie & I will be off to nosh at some tasty spots too. What is the restaurant you favored most in Vancouver? Cheers, nora
Happy Birthday Nora
Thanks for your comments. I cannot say which Vancouver restaurant I favour now as things change so fast…but right now I would love to have some Vij’s food for a change!
Marian
Hi Marian:
Another interesting posting – it seems that there are several eating spots in your area. Do the Ethiopians eat out often?
Arrosto (with 2 r’s) means ‘roast’ in Italian, so may be another leftover from Italian days. What is to be seen at Lalibela? I think you mentioned it another time, as well.
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth
Yes it could be Italian; around here we play fast and loose with spelling with some endearing results. I think it has to do with the way Amharic works and English is taken the same way…There seem to be a lot of people in the cafes (Woldia does have 45,000 people) but I am not not that many eat out as it is almost always men only, not woman or families and I doubt most could afford the cost.
Marian
dear marian
as you stay longer, the posts grow funnier!!! i miss our long coffees together, and i will never take for granted either my at-home lattes or those i drink at cafes. is the weather changing there now?? i solemnly promise to send you some real stuff by mail. peter has been admiring your photos and i must say that they translate very well to this medium. take care, i’m really enjoying your pithy observations.
much love
marcy
hi how are you ?you now i came from ethiopia woldia .i want to realy admaer you .it is my home town.