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The Ethiopian dish kitfo combines lamb, chicken and beef with lentils, collard greens, cabbage and split peas. It's served on a large circle of bread that forms an edible plate.Restaurants
Taste of Ethiopia spices up the Southfield scene
Meskerem (Meskie) Gebreyohannes owned two Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto before moving to Metro Detroit.
Ethiopian artifacts have a prominent place in the decor at Taste of Ethiopia.
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The shopping strip where Meskerem (Meskie) Gebreyohannes just unveiled her Ethiopian restaurant isn't remarkable in any way. But step inside Taste of Ethiopia, and the nondescript row of shops shows its exotic side.
The room, painted a vivid egg-yolk yellow accented with magenta, is a treasure trove of Ethiopian artifacts, from the woven baskets, carved wooden stools and the hourglass-shaped tables called merab, to pen-and-ink sketches of the faces of Ethiopia neatly displayed in black frames all around the walls. Appropriate music is in the background.
The sunny spot, open just three weeks now, is not Meskie's first restaurant venture, but it is the first since she relocated here from Toronto, where she had two restaurants, the Blue Nile (no relation to the local one) and King Solomon.
After coming here in deference to her husband's engineering career, she was out of the restaurant business for a number of years. She seems excited to be cooking again, and introducing a new audience to the fare she prepares pretty much single-handedly.
The bright, upbeat dining room is smaller than the airy kitchen where she makes the flatbread (injera) with flour made from the tiny grain called teff. It has a slight sourdough flavor and is the basis for everything else.
Before food is brought from the kitchen at Taste of Ethiopia, the server (sometimes daughter Sosina) brings out a basket of steaming towels, one for each diner to cleanse the hands, a touch that is especially welcome because traditional Ethiopian style dining does not include utensils. (Those who want conventional knives and forks may have them, but they do take away from the experience.)
The hands are used to tear off little pieces of the pale brown bread and pick up the various meat and vegetable stews to pop into the mouth. Extra pieces of bread, rolled to keep them warm, come in addition to the large circle of bread that forms the edible dinner plate.
The menu itself is informative, offering concise descriptions of the vegetable and legume dishes as well as beef, lamb and chicken stews that are served in multiples of two or four.
Some are spicy, such as the red lentils simmered in berbere, the hot pepper sauce that is one of the essentials of this style of cooking; others, including split peas with onion, ginger, garlic and turmeric, are not.
In addition, Gebreyohannes prepares what she calls "special dishes" that are served as individual entrees rather than in combinations: Ethiopian steak tartare (raw or medium rare) at $11.50 the most expensive dish; chopped beef or lamb cooked with onion, garlic, rosemary and red wine; or small, tender chunks of lamb in the same marinade, an especially tasty dish, as is the bone-in chicken stew called doro w'et.
With everything comes a salad of shredded leaf lettuce and chopped tomatoes with Meskie's dressing made of olive oil, black pepper, sesame seed oil and fresh lemon juice that's brought to the table in a little cork-topped jug.
That's one of the niceties at this little place, along with the three-sided stoneware pots containing condiments, the big glass cups in which Ethiopian tea is served and the tiny demitasse cups for the strong black Ethiopian coffee.
This is a leisurely, convivial style of dining that shouldn't be rushed. One of the best parts of the meal comes when the stews atop the injera are gone, leaving only bread soaked with the juices and gravy to be torn off and eaten.
Meskie says she sometimes misses the vibrant international scene in Toronto. We can thank her for bringing at least a little taste of it here.
You can reach Molly Abraham at (313) 222-1475 or abraham67@ comcast.net.
The dining room includes traditional hourglass-shaped tables, called merab, and pen-and-ink sketches.
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