Anniversary Dinner - Ethiopian Style

As our anniversary came near this year we decided what better way to celebrate than go try an Ethiopian restaurant! We had a blast!! Our waitress, Merona, was so sweet and funny. She could tell it was our first time there and laughed at our deep concentration on the menus. She explained what everything was to us and how we were to eat (you use your right hand and don't use any silverware!)and recommended some dishes for us to try. We put our trust in her and went for it! We had Ethiopian spiced tea with our meal, Sambusa, which is spiced beef and lentils in a crispy wrapper for an appetizer (so good!) and Doro Wott which is spicy, slow cooked chicken with a variety of veggies for dinner. It's served family style on a piece of injera (spongy, sourdough flat bread)and they give you extra rolls of injera to scoop the food with. The spices were different, not something we're used to eating, but really pretty good. My favorites were the chicken, lentils and zucchini. Yumm! And of course we had to try their Ethiopian coffee for dessert. I loved it! The flavor reminded me of wassel that we drink at Christmas time. Sort of a sweet, fruity taste. They serve it in these tiny little mugs, so cute!
It was such a neat cultural experience, I'd love to go back again and take our family along so they can experience it as well. We told Merona we would be going to Ethiopia next year to bring home our child and she was so excited and said she was going to be there next year too. She said she would teach us phrases in Amharic if we wanted when we come back! She did teach us how to say "thank you" before we left. "Ameseginalehu" (Ame-segi-na-lew) to Merona for making our experience such a great one!!