> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > [email protected] > Sent: 25 August 2012 17:46 > To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" > Subject: RE: PESO: Tasty Ethiopian dinner > > I always thought that Prester John's mythical land was around or on the > other side of India. > > I guess that's why I couldn't find it when I lead that crusade to save > it... > > Cheers, > Wrongway Peachfuzz
I've been to both places, Peaches, and I can assure you it's Ethiopia! It's a legend like Atlantis which people are/were happy to locate in all sorts of different places, but Ethiopia fits the story very well indeed of a remote Christian kingdom. Edward Gibbon said "Ethiopia slept a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten". It was a Christian country from about 300AD, Coptic, with some contact with Egypt via the Nile, but developed essentially in isolation from the rest of the Christian world, just as its earlier and then vesitigial Jewish population developed in isolation (so much so that they retained many pre-Mosaic rituals which had long been lost from mainstream Judaism). They were frequently threatened by the surrounding Muslims and to a lesser extent animists, and still retain unpleasant memories of the invasion by Ahmed Gragn. My pet theory about Prester John is that news of a Christian Kingdom found it's way to Europe via the Crusaders and tagged itself on to the many romances that were in vogue at the time. It is an extraordinary country to visit. It's a bit of a cliché, and perhaps a bit insulting, to say that it's like going back in time to mediaeval Europe, or like an episode of Star Trek where they find a planet that has developed like Earth, but not quite like Earth. If you go back in time far enough you can still find one of my pictures from Ethiopia online. Someday I must rescan them and do a proper gallery: <http://pug.komkon.org/98aug/aug7.htm> That picture was taken outside this church: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_George,_Lalibela> of which I have numerous rather good pictures. B > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > [email protected] > Sent: 25 August 2012 17:46 > To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" > Subject: RE: PESO: Tasty Ethiopian dinner > > I always thought that Prester John's mythical land was around or on the > other side of India. > > I guess that's why I couldn't find it when I lead that crusade to save > it... > > Cheers, > Wrongway Peachfuzz > > "What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof." -- > Christopher Hitchens > > --- Original Message --- > > From: Bob W <[email protected]> > Sent: August 24, 2012 8/24/12 > To: "'Pentax-Discuss Mail List'" <[email protected]> > Subject: RE: PESO: Tasty Ethiopian dinner > > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > > Of Tim Bray > > > > For anyone who hasn't been to a good Ethiopian restaurant, I totally > > recommend it; the food comes on a big share-plate covered with a > bread > > platter. Warning: Some dishes are severely spicy: > > http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2012/08/24/- > > big/IMG_0195.jpg.html > > > > Ethiopian food is what brought me on to this list, way back when. At > the place where I was working we had a monthly dining club, and chose a > different nationality of food each month. When it was something well- > known and popular we'd get 12-15 people turning up. > > One month we decided on Ethiopian, and only 3 of us turned up, but the > food was utterly delicious and the whole experience was completely out > of this world. I'd been thinking about Ethiopia for some time in any > case, because I found it hard to reconcile the images of famine and war > with the stories of an ancient culture, Prester John and so on. The > food just deepened my intrigue, so I booked a month's holiday and went > travelling there in 1996. > > It's a completely wonderful country, and the people are very friendly > and interesting. The food is generally better over here though than it > is/was in the countryside outside Addis Ababa, except for the injera. > Real injera in Ethiopia is really unlike the stuff we get over here, > even though some of the restaurants do fly it in fresh ever day. > > Anyway, I had some camera problems (MX and Super-A) while I was there, > so I found this group and subscribed so that I could ask for advice. I > ended up buying 3 LXes, which I took to Ethiopia on my second trip > there. Had problems with those cameras too, so all in the all the PDML > was pretty useless and very expensive, but there were some good flame > wars. > > On that second trip I went back to Lalibela where I was told that a new > restaurant had opened - a French restaurant. This of course fascinated > me, so I went one evening. It was exactly the same as every other > restaurant in Ethiopia, so I asked what was French about it. They told > me it was because the woman who owned it had once spent a week in > Paris. > > The 'big share plate' is called a mesob. The 'bread' is injera. They do > this thing called gursha if they like you - they break off a bit of > injera, scoop up some of the stew and feed it to you into your mouth. > It sounds strange but it's a very nice friendly custom. > > B > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
