dinner at the Asmara Restaurant

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I've tried African food at Le Kilimanjaro in Newtown, NSW as a student at the University of Sydney a few years back. But I could not remember if the items in the menu were identified based on the regional divisions of such a big continent. And so when Biboy told me that we were eating Ethiopian food, I did not know what I was in for. I just guessed that coconuts would somehow be involved.

Diego and Lisa, Biboy's friends, went with us. The first restaurant was closed when we stopped by so we drove on to Asmara Restaurant in Oakland, CA. The first thing I noticed was its Central Asian feel (or at least what I think is a Central Asian feel): dim yellow lights, dark wood tables and chairs, and the strong smell of spices. The vivid colors of the paintings, however, reminded me that we're supposed to be in Africa... to be in Ethiopia and Eritrea, in fact.

Ethiopian food

The food was as colorful as the paintings. We got an appetizing platter of a number of items covering the different food groups. In the dim light (and with my handy camera phone), the photo above does not give justice to the lively colors of the carrots and the potatoes contrasting to the greens of the vegetables and the browns of the meat. Topping all these was a generous serving of goat's (I think) cheese.

My question was: how do I eat all this food? It turned out that we were supposed to scoop the meats and the veggies using a sourdough flatbread called "injera". No utensils came with the bread so we just dug into the platter. With no rice anywhere near the platter, I thought that I would need to eat something else to consider myself full... but as we were finishing up, I realized that this meal was very heavy.

Aside from liking the meal, I enjoyed eating at Asmara because the staff and the manager were friendly. The manager even took the time to explain what the ingredients were for the injera. And as we were leaving, he even waited at the door to say good bye. What a nice chap, he was.

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I don't think that coconuts were used as an ingredient in cooking the meats we ordered.

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