Kategna

Night One:

Kategna

Finally getting this started after a week and half with a post about the first night seems a little odd, but oh well. I ended up after the 12-hour flight and full day making my way to a habesha called Kategna off Bole Rd near the airport for some take-away.

As usual with Ethiopian food I ordered way too much, in this case getting a ½ beef and berbere ½ shiro and chicken dish; and then a full fasting vegetarian dish (fasting days are on Wednesday and Friday when those who follow Orthodox Christian rules abstain from eating meat).

Before I talk about the dishes, I have to give props to our driver, Melkie, who we met four years ago and without whom life here would suck. We’d basically be stuck hiring out a cab on a per trip basis to be taken to anything I can find in the guide book and then ordering on my own. As you can see from the picture, most menus come strictly with a direct translation of the dish and no explanation beyond that.

So basically the point is, I wouldn’t be doing shit if it wasn’t for Melkie and this blog is thus heavily dependent on his knowledge and assistance. I pester him with eighty ridiculous questions about how they make the dish, and Melkie is content to play along, though he also acknowledges that like most Ethiopian males, he does not cook and has no desire to figure out how to make the dishes. Dude is the best.

I don’t know what three quarters of those dishes are and obviously there are no helpful pictures or Japanese plastic samples in the window.

I got the food back to the guesthouse and headed to the common kitchen to get a beer. By the time I returned my son and wife had destroyed most of the shiro chicken, which tells you all you need to know about that. But the real revelation was the fasting dish – the intensity of the vegetables was incredible. Each of them had a strong degree of acidity without burning or being overwhelming, bringing a perfect complement to the meat dishes (though of course if you were fasting, there would be no contrast, score one for the non-orthodox!). I assume the acidity is from some form of vinegar and the vegetables may even be lightly pickled.

One of the vegetarian items was a horseradishy tasting thing I’ve never had before and I went back on a subsequent to try to discover what it was, only to find they were out of the fasting dish.

That’s enough for one blog, get the shit up there and get on with it. I’ll talk about coffee next…