This weekend I ventured into the city to help celebrate the upcoming nuptials of a close friend. It included dinner and Red Sox game (embarrassingly my first). Dinner, per the bride-to-be’s wishes, was at Addis Red Sea, an authentic Ethiopian restaurant in Boston. To be honest, I was more excited about trying a new type of food than going to the Sox game. I love the Sox, but I’m a huge food nerd, what can I say?
It was definitely a unique and different dining experience. It started right from the get-go, with short stools gathered around a mesob, which is a traditional woven straw table. Frankly, I could have done with regular chairs. More accurately, my back could have done with regular chairs, particularly after a leisurely two hour dinner. I was excited to see that the restaurant carried Ethiopian wine, and I was eager to try some, but they were out of the kind I wanted. It was a bit of a letdown, and I had to settle for a South African red. At least I stayed on the continent.
The food was delicious and served in a very unique way. All the food is served atop large pieces of flatbread, sort of like Indian naan. The bread is used in place of utensils (which led my wine-addled brain to refer to it as a “breadtensil” the whole night). You tear off pieces of the bread and use it to scoop up the food. The food itself was very good. The flavors reminded me a bit of Indian food. There was also fairly liberal use of chili powder, one dish reminding a couple of us of a Mexican mole. Overall, I really enjoyed it and would happily try it again.
As you can see from the picture above, the Ethiopian serving style lends itself to a pretty picture. With all those yummy little piles of food, it’s easy to share with friends and it made our dinner very fun. As you can see from the picture below, we completely destroyed that spread. Needless to say, I didn’t need a hot dog when we got to the park.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on May 13, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
