"all together now..."
Trip Start
May 16, 2007
1
5
25
Trip End
Jul 28, 2007
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
I was pretty tired, but I stood with all the other ethiopians looking for their arriving friends, and could not keep a smile off my face.
Caught a glimpse of them by the baggage claim, and thought.
Yup, those are my guys.
Dad in pro american wear, indiana jones like hat.
Jon in oakleys hat, military esq gear.
We're staying at Kibour's house. A family friend. He has an awesome place with intricately carved dark wood furniture, and beautiful big pieces of art. Blossoming garden out back, a gaurd, and other house help
Habesha
. So basically - its a place to be seriously spoiled, ethiopian style. I've eaten so much recently, I think it is quite possible I will die from gluttony in this land of famine.
I finally tried Gored gored, an ethiopian dish that is basically chunks of raw beef - that you dip in dry spice and eat.
I've had Kitfo before, which is minced raw beef thats mixed with warmed spice. But I've never had chunks of raw meat.
There is another raw dish which is literally called " raw meat" which is actual fist size pieces of raw meat that you gnaw on.
Gored Gored is kinda cubed in 'bite size' chunks.
Still pretty daunting, I find.
Anyway, I ate a bunch of it - definitely something I could do again on a rare occasion. Not something to be added to my favorite foods list. Not something I'd attempt to make or serve ( even though it would be pretty easy: unwrap meat, cube, eat) or would recommend for squeamish stomachs. You're definitely chewing on sinews. rubbery and stringy - and the meat is not tender like rare meat, its soft and squishy cuz it is raw
Habesha Restaurant
. Feels pretty primal, challenging. Thats what I like about it.
Its funny because everyone at the restaurant we ordered it at kept warning us about what had been actually ordered. The server taking the order says " its raw you know."
Then someone who brought our beer mentioned it again. Then when the food finally arrives -the server looks at us, sends the gored gored back into the kitchen to be warmed a little bit (glad I didn't eat it ice cold) and when it reappears she looks at us, points at the dish and says "Raw!"
"We know, we know."
