
“Mamma Desta” and Ethiopian food in the U.S - samclemens
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/3/28/21195850/ethiopian-food-washington-dc-history-desta-bairu
======
Stratoscope
Oh, this makes me miss Zeni in San Jose. It's the best Ethiopian food I've had
in this area. Must visit when they are open again! (I guess they have takeout,
but I live some distance away.)

I saw one comment here from someone who dislikes the "eat with your hands and
scoop up the food with injera" style of Ethiopian dining. Zeni has both
options: a traditional Ethiopian dining room and a western-style room with
regular tables and chairs. They are very nice people, and I hope their
business survives the current crisis.

In the meantime, I will have to content myself with our home-roasted Ethiopian
coffee. I love those fruity dry process beans. Yum!

~~~
7thaccount
Their coffee is second to none. I only drink Ethiopian coffee when possible.
Amazing flavor.

~~~
_emacsomancer_
Not only the flavour: I find that a lot of coffees make me feel slightly ill
after drinking, but not with Ethiopian beans.

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samatman
Mama Desta's in Chicago was second-rate, though I'm still sad to hear they
closed (I left in 2009).

The hookup spot there is Ethiopian Diamond, the setting for some of my fondest
memories of that city. The East Bay has many respectable options but none ever
quite measured up.

I should have skipped reading this before dinner; there's one Ethiopian
restaurant in my entire state and air travel to the island which has it is
sadly restricted.

Great little slice of life article, only slightly marred by the author's
feigned outrage that restaurant critics of the era referred to Desta Bairu as
"Mamma Desta". Was it misogyny, in the era of Julia Child's celebrity, or the
fact that the restaurant was called "Mamma Desta"? We may never know!

~~~
Digit-Al
I didn't see anything in the article to suggest the author attributed it to
anything as simple as misogyny.

From the article:

>Though Desta Bairu’s cooking drew plaudits, a number of traits beyond her
control — her age, her race, her motherly mien — may have put her at a
disadvantage.

[edit: formatting]

~~~
samatman
I didn't see anything in the article to suggest the author attributed it to
anything as simple as the restaurant being called "Mamma Desta", either.

Which was mainly my point. There's also no indication whatsoever that Desta
Bairu would have preferred to be called "Desta Bairu" in print, over the
"Mamma Desta" that she and the owner chose as the name of the retaurant.

That's just assumed, and used as a springboard for a collection of lukewarm
tropes which I summarized as 'misogyny'. I thought that was more condescending
than referring to her by her nom de kitchen.

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clairity
angelenos, and visitors to LA, should check out awash[0] in mid-city, near
(but not in) the ethiopian district on fairfax. it's an absolute hole-in-the-
wall with warm but wonderfully slow service (expect to wait 45 minutes to get
served after ordering). you're expected to relax and chat with friends, unlike
korean bbq restaurtants that try to turn your table over as fast as possible
(that's why they cook the meat for you even at the table grill). get the vege
combo (pictured in the link below) and the awaze tibbs (or the meat combo,
which includes it).

it's fabulous and very reasonably priced.

[0] #1 on this list: [https://la.eater.com/maps/best-restaurants-los-angeless-
litt...](https://la.eater.com/maps/best-restaurants-los-angeless-little-
ethiopia-fairfax)

~~~
tootie
There's a restaurant called Awash on Court St in Brooklyn that's also
delicious. Slightly more modern style but still terrific food and very chill.
Ghenet on 4th Ave is probably my favorite though.

Also, you can't talk about Ethiopian cuisine without mentioning that they were
the first culture to drink coffee.

~~~
clairity
neat! i think i went to a place once in DC or thereabouts that was also called
awash.

and yes, ethiopian coffee is good and the beans from that region are among the
best in the world.

~~~
anticsapp
oh man, first time I had Ethiopian food I was 19 with friends in Adams Morgan
in DC. I've had a lot of good Ethiopian since but nothing has bested that
moment.

~~~
beamatronic
Ha! Me too but I was about 22. We went to the “Red Sea”.

~~~
anticsapp
The Ethiopian community in DC makes the best food. I need to get back down
there one day.

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anw
Living in Los Angeles, we are fortunate to have a Little Ethiopia with plenty
of restaurants baking delicious dishes. It's been a good opportunity to bring
in friends from out of town to try "exotic" food and let them see that
unfamiliar food to them can also be completely delicious, and even become a
new favorite dish.

Note: If you have not tried Ethiopian food, check out Yebeg Alecha (Lamb
Stew), along with the combination vegetable dishes that come with Injera (a
thin, spongy bread that you can tear and use as a pocket for the vegetables).

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watersb
My favorite cuisine.

Walk down Telegraph Avenue, from Berkeley to Lake Merritt, you will find a
number of great Ethiopian-style restaurants.

My favorite has long been the Blue Nile, which over the years has migrated
south, now near the west end of Lake Merritt.

~~~
dllthomas
My favorite in the area is Enssaro.

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somberi
NYC has its share of good Ethiopian restaurants. My favorite for the past 20
years has been Queen of Sheba on 10th Ave (47st). There is Meskerem at
McDougal St. There is Awash, as well.

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starpilot
Best places in Seattle: Cafe Ibex and Cafe Selam. For beginners, veggie combo
is always good. More advanced: Kitfo, which is Ethiopian steak tartare (raw or
rare).

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selimthegrim
Any Philadelphia recommendations? I remember one in the West 50s or so that
had a bar called Fiume over it.

~~~
TheAdamist
That's abyssinia. There's a couple clusters of Ethiopian restaurants in that
general area. Baltimore Ave has several too.

I don't have any personal recommendations.

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Skunkleton
I love Ethiopian food, but it has never seemed mainstream to me. Claiming it’s
part of the shared American palate is going to need a citation.

~~~
ummonk
Yeah, I've eaten Ethiopian food and liked it, but unless I've been completely
out of the loop, Ethiopian food is not "an American fascination".

~~~
dang
Ok, we've taken fascination out of the title above.

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cmrdporcupine
I still remember the time I -- a Torontonian who has eaten extensively at the
many Ethopian restaurants in town -- visited Munich with my wife and went to
an Ethopian restaurant there, and found many of the local Germans eating with
a knife and fork instead their hands.

Maybe this was just that night or just this one restaurant, but it kinda
shocked me.

~~~
SeeDave
>Maybe this was just that night or just this one restaurant, but it kinda
shocked me.

This may be a "German thing"; I remember being a bit surprised when I ate
lunch with a vendor from Germany and he ate a hamburger and french fries with
a knife and fork.

~~~
jandrewrogers
FWIW, I was raised American and have always done the same. It isn’t just a
German thing.

~~~
meowface
I imagine eating hamburgers and fries with a knife and fork is quite rare
among people born, raised, and living in the US.

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modsWork4appl
Is beef and chicken really available in quantities and prices deemed
"affordable" in Ethiopia?

Beef seems like a luxury good here. Chicken may not be quite luxury, but it's
more expensive than vegetarian.

~~~
backprojection
It’s relatively expensive, depends on your income level. Chicken beef and goat
are common. Folks in the country have better access than in the cities.

~~~
leeman2016
Plus, people follow strict fasting (up to 210 mandatory fasting days in a
year) ... at least the Oriental Orthodox church followers which make up 40-50%
of the population.

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susejesus
Ethiopian food is probably underrated as the creators are African. It is
actually superior to all of these combined: Chinese, Indian, Italian,
Japanese, Greek and more

~~~
saagarjha
…in your opinion, of course.

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supernova87a
I hate to say it, but I was never a big fan of Ethiopian food, even well
before the virus situation. All my friends reaching in, grabbing, and getting
their fingers in the communal bread/stew was a real turnoff. Flavors were not
that different from other spicy types of food, and it really was the fingers-
in-bowls thing that I could never get over.

ps. I know there are ways of individually serving it.

~~~
titanomachy
The restaurants that I've been to had serving spoons, I guess as a compromise
to Western norms. The flavours were subtly different from other things I've
tried.

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freepor
You know Ethiopian food is good because it's become popular without the
"mother country" wielding any kind of economic influence/hard power/soft
power.

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Der_Einzige
This food looks delicious and I'd love to try some. It seems that they haven't
"Americanized" it as much as many other ethnic restaurants - though I haven't
had real Ethopian food so I don't actually know that for sure.

I wish that Americans would stop paying for shitty versions of other cultures
foods. I live in a huge city with lots of people of a certain south-east Asian
ethnic group. I am also married to a south-east Asian of said ethnic group. We
have tried every one of the available restaurants and not a single one of them
comes even close to properly approximating the food available in her home
country (according to her).

In her opinion, this isn't just because of a lack of available ingredients. It
is because Americans don't want authentic food. Fix your shit America because
we will forever be (along with the UK) the laughing stock of the culinary
world with these practices.

~~~
gambiting
I have no idea why you're having a go at Americans so much, this literally
happens everywhere. British interpretation of Indian dishes has nothing to do
with originals. Every country has their localized version of McDonald's
even(Poland has a burger with saurkraut and goat cheese). German idea of
Italian food is....difficult, but incidentally Germans make the best kebabs.
I'd argue that the worst pizza I've ever had was actually in Italy.

There's no such thing as "authentic" food. It doesn't exist and it never did.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
With you until the last line. There are definitely corruptions of good dishes
that have no merit. What do you call them?

~~~
gambiting
Bad food. Seriously, food isn't good just because it's authentic, just like
music isn't automatically good because it's traditional.

Like, some Scottish establishments will deep fry a pizza. Who cares it's not
an "authentic" Italian food? It's "authentic" Scottish food at this point. I
also don't particularly care about Italians thinking it's an abomination -
they are free to think that, but I wouldn't have a go at the Scots for doing
it - if they like it, then whatever.

~~~
jowiar
Fried pizza is most certainly an authentic Italian thing -- it's street food
in Napoli, and it's absolutely fantastic.

