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What's Happening in Ethiopia: Food & Drink

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Ethiopia Food & Drink

Ethiopian cuisine primarily consists of various sauces, called wat, vegetables, and cheeses eaten by hand with a sourdough flatbread called injera. Meals are eaten family-style with everyone eating from a large platter or mesob straw table and it is a common custom to feed each other bites, a gesture called gursha.

Wat can be made with chicken, beef, lamb, goat, fish or vegetables (pork traditionally isn't eaten for religious regions) and usually includes a red chili mix of spices called berbere that is distinctive to Ethiopia. Injera is made with teff, a fine grain that is also indigenous to Ethiopia. Wat is always served on top of injera so as to soak up any extra sauce, with bits of injera being torn off as you eat. 

Other popular dishes include kitfo, which comprises raw or rare minced beef served with mitmita, a spiced butter sauce, and tibs, or sauteed meats and vegetables. Common breakfast dishes are fir fir, bites of injera soaked in spices, and kinche, crushed wheat that is cooked and seasoned with spiced butter. Tasty snacks are dabo kolo, crunchy fried dough, and kolo, a healthy mix of crunchy grains and seeds.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and many meals still end with the coffee ceremony. The beans are freshly roasted, ground, boiled in water, then served in tiny espresso-size cups with sugar. Other drinks that are indigenous to Ethiopia are honey wine, or tej, and amboha, which is natural mineral water from the hot springs of Ambo.

Tags: berbère, east african food, ethiopia, ethiopian coffee, ethiopian cuisine, fir fir, gursha, injera, kitfo, kolo, mesob, teff, tibs, wat
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Ethiopia - Food & Drink