By Bix Engels arborweb. May 21, Marketplace Comment: 0. Bathed in shades of ochre, deep red, and dark green, and decorated with geometric designs and folkloric paintings, the spacious room is welcoming and comfortable. Seating is in deep booths or at a mesob, a colorful woven basket of a table.
Mesobs are built to hold only the communal tray from which everyone eats; small side tables handle drinks. This is such a communal mealโparticularly at dinnerโthat it encourages hanging around and yakking afterwards, and for that, booths serve as a much better lounging venue. The evening menu is simple and straightforward.
It consists of four meat and seven vegetarian dishes, a salad, and a few desserts. Dinners are served communally and priced by the person. We chose the Ethiopian feastโmeat plus vegetablesโbut a slightly less expensive vegan feast is also an option. Before dinner the waiter brought a tray of steaming hot washcloths for our hands. Then he delivered a tray of rolled injera breadโsoft, sourdough griddlecakes that are torn into strips and used in place of cutlery to pick up bites of food.
This was followed by an injera-lined platter on which the eleven dishes were displayed in small mounds of various earthy shades and contrasting textures, arranged as carefully as a still life. And the hotter dishes, though not particularly fiery, packed a much more desirable punch.
The two meat-based wat stews, a chicken doro wat and a beef zilzil wat, were intensely flavorful. Always there was that interplay between the spongy, faintly tangy injera and the stews and sauces.
