Hi, > One problem is that the recipe labelled most authentic in the > Ethiopian cookbook I had, required a type of grain not easily > available in the US.
That would be 'tef', which is a little like millet, and indigenous to the Ethiopian highlands. It's starting to become available in health food stores (next to the spelt, probably). Still, turning it into injera does not look easy. There are different types of injera, some of it utterly disgusting. Most of the stuff I have eaten has been cooked in a large wok-like pan over an open charcoal fire in front of somebody's house. It's hard to recreate that sort of thing. The worst I ever tasted was given to me by a monk who lived in a coffin-sized hole in the wall of a medieval monastery outside Gondar. It was really vile, but he insisted. > I do recall reading that Ethiopia had been "isolated" long enough > for its cuisine to be considered "pure" -- not diluted by other > cultures -- but that it seemed to me the period of isolation had > to have started kind of late since they use potatoes and jalapenos. The historian Gibbon said "Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten". This expresses very accurately something of what it feels like to travel in the country. It sounds trite, but the country brings to mind an episode from the original 'Star Trek'. Imagine 2 parallel worlds, but at some stage they split and develop along different lines. Kirk, knowing one of the worlds, visits the other. It feels familiar, yet different at the same time. Another analogy might be the strange similarities and differences between marsupial and placental mammals. It's a bit of a cliche, but travelling in Ethiopia is in many ways as I imagine the middle ages in Europe must have been. Miles Bredin's book "The Pale Abyssinian" is very good. It is the biography of James Bruce, one of the few Europeans to visit Ethiopia during its isolation, and return to tell the tale. For a hundred years nobody believed what he said about the country, it sounded so implausible. But it was all true, and to a great extent still is. -- Cheers, Bob
