Ethiopian Food
I checked out a very good restaurant over the weekend.
The name of the place is Awash, and it's on East 6th Street. They have another restaurant on the Upper West Side, which goes by the same name.
For those who are squeamish, (I hope not..I'm not!!!) just to let you know that Ethiopian food is made to eat with the hands, they don't give out utensils.
Since this was my first time trying this cuisine, I decided to order the combo entree, which involves two meat dishes, and three vegetable dishes of your choice. That way you can rule out what you like or don't like. They don't give full orders of these entrees on the combo, but they give you sampler portions of everything, which in the long run would amount to a full-sized entree.
They present the food on one big giant piece of bread that is reminiscent to a pancake which covers the plate. This pancake is made with wheat and is somewhat moist and spongy. They give you a side order of the same pancakes, all rolled up and you break off pieces of this pancake and grab the food with it, and eat. The pancake serves as your eating utensil, and the food is of a somewhat stew-like consistency, which means you eat both food and bread at the same time.
The food was delicious. This style of cooking involves many different spices and the flavors of the foods themselves would range from spicy sweetness, to spicy sour. One of the veggie entrees was downright sour, so I know not to order that one the next time around, the meat entrees were good.
hungry