The Eritrean experience

The main traditional foods in Eritrean cuisine are tsebhis (stews) served with injera/taita (flatbread made from teff, wheat, or sorghum) and hilbet (paste made from legumes, mainly lentil, faba beans).  Eritrean and Ethopian cuisine (especially in the northern half) are very similar, given the shaed history of the two countries.  

Eritrean food habits vary regionally. In the highlands, injera is the staple diet and eaten daily among the Tigrinya. Injera is made out of teff, wheat or sorghum, and resembles a spongy, slightly sour pancake. When eating, diners generally share food from a large tray placed in the centre of a low dining table. Numerous injera are layered on this tray and topped with various spicy stews. Diners break into the section of injera in front of them, tearing off pieces and dipping them into the stews.

On this past Wednesday, my GF and I drove to Arlington, Va. and met up with a friend of ours at the Enjera Eritrean Restaurant.  Some may beg to differ, but to me, Eritrean food has the exact ingredient as Ethiopian food, down to the seasoning.  One of my friend's friends went ahead and ordered for us, with 3 meat combination (chicken, lamb, some stewed cabbage, goat cheese chunks, collard greens,a small side salad, and two grain stews of lentil and some kind of bean stew) and for my friend, a vegetarian plate.  (She "converted" to vegetarianism back in February... I'm sure that it's a lot healthier for you but, still.)

Above is a picture of the plate that I had... with all the ingredients sitting on a sheet of flatbread.

Miller Lite was the drink of choice, I never really realized how watery that beer is.

The food was pretty good tasting, and it kept me full for a while.  The GF didn't really eat hers, since she's not all that food adventurous and so we made a doggie bag of her plate.  It ended up being my brunch the next day.