International Cuisine | Monday, first period

[sharp_as_knives]

Class today was met at Portalocity by Hannibal wearing a lightweight suit much less formal than the previous week's. "Good morning." He nodded to them. "This week, in deference to those of you who had difficulties with the utensils last week, and because there was a request for coffee, we will be heading to Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, for some traditional food of the region."

He smiled. "This food is eaten with your fingers, which hopefully you are all fairly adept at. And coffee in Ethiopia is very serious business; there is an entire ceremony surrounding it, which I have arranged for us after lunch."

He let any discussion die down, then raised one hand in caution. "There are many local languages, the primary one being Amharic. Unlike our previous outings, I do not speak it, either, but most of our hosts should speak English or French, and they do have English menus. Please continue to be courteous and polite, and if you have any difficulties, ask."

He waited for any last-minute questions, then waved them through the portal, which dropped them off on a wide and somewhat dusty street, bright and sunny, in front of Kategna restaurant.

Comments

Re: Sit and eat!

[bestatmystery]

He did seem to be the obvious candidate for watching! Lottie studied what he was doing carefully, then tore off a bit -- a large bit -- of her own bit of injera and reaching for the same bit of food.

There was some bouncing and squeaking following her actually eating it. "Cor, that is WELL spicy!"

She was not complaining.

Re: Sit and eat!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

Hannibal chuckled. "The main spice in it - and many other foods here - is berbere. It's a mixture of chili peppers, garlic, ginger, basil, korarima, rue, ajwain, nigella, and fenugreek." He stopped to taste another bit. "With a bit of extra ginger and garlic in this."

Re: Sit and eat!

[bestatmystery]

"I don't know what half those are," Lottie said cheerfully. "It's a different sort of spicy from curry, innit." She tore off another piece of injera -- like a professional, this time -- and this time went for a bit of the key wat.

Re: Sit and eat!

[never-dull.livejournal.com]

"It is," Hannibal agreed. "Although some of the foods here will also have hotter peppers in them, so it never hurts to be careful."

He was going for the kitfo next himself.