Gone Walkabout 2: A Meal To Remember

Saturday, September 26, 2015

A Meal To Remember

When we went to Ethiopia in '03 (the same trip of the coffee ceremony I wrote about a few weeks ago), I had not been able to make contact with our friends due to the phone lines not working. They knew we were coming, but not exactly when.

Since that is what it was, we decided to just show up. We found their home largely because as we were looking, we kept saying Tadelle's name over and over. As we went by their home, their son heard his dad's name be spoken, checked it out, and welcomed us hugely.

His parents were not home right then. We visited briefly and said we'd be back tomorrow.

We were welcomed most wonderfully with this feast. Oh goodness!

However, before the meal Belaynesh taught Himself and me how to make the wonderful sourdough flat bread called 'injera'.

You take the fermented batter and spread it on a huge griddle like you would pancake batter. I was trying to be very careful, all the while Belaynesh was saying to me something that sounded like "easy". I thought she was telling me to slow down.

Not.

She grabbed my hand and started slinging that batter on the griddle! Seems that 'easy' was probably more like 'essi' or something. It really meant 'faster' or 'hurry up'!

Needless to say, my injera came out looking a bit sorry. But it tasted great!!

That show-off I'm married to used his 'next in line' advantage and of course his came out perfectly.

That was the same evening we were treated to the "Welcome" coffee ceremony.

Then to my total shock, Belaynesh said she wanted to teach me how to do the ceremony AND that she had made a dress just for me.

I was speechless.

After putting it on, Belaynesh started making the neccessary tweaks and adjustments so it looked right. About that time Tadelle decided he would add his opinion.

You can tell from the look on her face that was NOT a good idea! LOL