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THE NEXT BIG THING

Ethiopian as cool

GEETA RAO

Eritrean cuisine now makes a strong statement on the streets of Washington

One of the world's oldest civilizations, Ethiopia is known to the discerning world for many things. The Arabica coffee bean and the discovery of coffee which gets its name from a fifth century Ethiopian shepherd called Kaffa, the legendary Queen of Sheba, the stone castles and floating monasteries of Gonder and Lallibelle that writer Pico Iyer describes poignantly, and of course, the fact that this is the crucible of Christianity.

But for a long time, Ethiopia, torn by civil war and famine, has been portrayed to the world as the land of emaciation and starvation. Yet it is Ethiopian Eritrean cuisine that is making a strong statement on the streets of Manhattan and Washington. Once cheap food for students and young immigrants, Ethiopian food in the U.S. is now cool, stylish and interesting. For Indians, this is a familiar yet strange cuisine reminiscent of appams and stew yet fiery enough to give Andhra cuisine a serious run for its money. The basic Ethiopian dish is Doro wot, which is chicken stew, but there are also lamb, vegetable and beef stews. WOT, WET, WAT... the spellings change in English. It is a fiery red stew/curry made with a key ingredient of Ethiopian cuisine — berbere. Like our garam masala, berbere is a base masala. The recipes are secret and each chef has his or her own variation. The stew is served on injera, the Ethiopian appam that is large and soft and fermented made from teff. For diet and weight watchers, teff is a wonder high protein high nutrition grain.

Spicy berbere

Accompaniments include missir or red masoor daal, cabbage or potato curry in flavours reminiscent of home and green beans with peanuts. A chickpea curry called shiro may also be served. But it is the berbere that is the killer application here. It is a paste made with hot red wild chillies, zeera, fenugreek, wild thyme, cardamom, cinnamon, garlic ginger and a number of secret herbs and spices that I cannot put a finger to. The end result is spicy, tongue ripping and sweat inspiring. It is the happy - unhappy-miserable-but-macho chilly experience that makes you want more. There is a variation to wot, which is alicha a mild curry made of ginger and onions. But, of course, to be Macho and go for wot is the done thing. At Jarra's in downtown Portland, we are served piping hot mutton wot on a bed of injera with greens, and potato curry on the side. Rolled injera are also served on the side much like rotis but the texture has the softeness of appams.

I am happy to discover a considerable range of vegetarian dishes. Gomen, which I instantly love, is a healthy dish of collard greens stir fried with tomatoes and garlic. The Indian connection is explained. Ethiopian Jews who traded with India brought back curry powder and traded culinary secrets along with spices. Some of the dishes of the Maharashtrian Bene Israeli Jews have a similar taste. And I speculate whether the appam came to Kerala via the Ethiopian Jews who traded with the Malabar Coast.

The wonder of food is the wonder of connections and Ethiopian food certainly links into Indian cuisine seamlessly. The stews are cooked in spiced butter called niter kibbe which looks like ghee and the end texture is more like a north Indian tomato based curry. African, Arab and Indian spices define the cuisine. Or perhaps it is the other way around. Wot and injera are eaten Indian style with your fingers or thaal style in a shared plate. There are thali style combination platters or you can order a basic stew and injera. A paneer like starter helps cool the system or there is Tej- Ethiopian honey wine.

At Jarra's, the only other accompaniments are the gasps and sniffs of palate ripping flavours and the raw silence of exploding sweat and taste buds.

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