Seattle: Tuesday Night with Justin

Justin and I decided to try an Ethiopian place called Assimba, partly because I’d spent all day studying Lucy, partly because an Ethiopian cabbie reccomended it, but also because we had both had good experiences with Ehiopian food in San Francisco.

The menu told the story of cooking in Ethiopia

Both men and women have their own special roles when preparing the food…Food served to guests where the meat is not the right type and and size, where the bones are fragmented, brings disgrace which will destroy one’s reputation. In some places, it is a major cause of mariage failure!

…Meseret points out that every food prepared is unique like the person is. Thus, the food that one has prepared has its own unique pesonality reflecting the personality of its cook. That is why lacking cooking skill is so dangerous to one’s reputations. The person man or woman who cooks bad may be labeled and end up with bad nick name for the rest of his/her life.

So that’s why people keep calling me Kiki “holes in pie dough” Maraschino!

I wish I could say it was a revelatory experience, opening us up to a whole new world of Culinary delights, but I guess I’ll have to save that one for Maori cuisine.

The injera, is a large flatbread made out of teff flour. It is extremely sour. Otherwise it had the texture of thin pancakes. Incredibly sour pancakes. The teff are used as a utensil to pick up the various stews and vegetables.

We ate a variety of foods, but they were all similarly spiced and extremely hot. We tried a sort of tartar called kitfo, which was raw ground beef marinated in mitmita. Sauteed meats are called tibs. We tried Gored Gored, cubes of beef sauteed in Nitir Qibe with onion, rosemary, green pepper and tomatoes. That one was pretty good. Our favorite dish was actually the lentils cooked with diced gnger and turmeric.

We did dig their decor.

This is not Jesus

But this is Stevie Wonder

We were a bit peckish after we left, so Catfish Corner was serendipity. The fried catfish was Southern fried without a trace of grease. The chicken wings were huge, like bat wings. I’m not usually a fan of potato salad made with vinegar and mustard, ut theirs was pretty impressive. A servicable red beans and rice rounded out the meal nicely.

The service was super friendly. The next day the special was going to be gumbo. Our server told me to call ahead if I was coming and she would save some for me. Now that’s the kind of place that makes you feel at home.

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