guess what we had for lunch

I met Brad at Abay for an Ethiopian lunch date today.  It was a fun first Ethiopian dining experience.  After ordering the Sambusa, we ordered the “special” which was more than enough food (think sampler platter).  There were seven items including: Kitfo, Doro W’et, Yebeg Qiqile, Quanta Firfir, Gomen Be Siga, Bozena Shiro, and Ayib.  [Yeah, I don't know how to pronounce much of it either!]

Here’s what it all is:

Kitfo – minced lean beef meat mixed with spiced butter and powdered hot chili pepper

Doro W’et – chicken stew

Yebeg Qiqile – mild lamb meat & bone stew

Quanta Firfir – seasoned sauce of beef jerky mixed with injera

Gomen Be Siga – collard greens cooked with onion, green pepper, garlic & oil

Bozena Shiro – pea flour and beef cooked with onion, garlic & pepper

Ayib – cheese

All of the food is placed on top of the injera (a soft, spongy flat bread with tiny holes).  To eat, you tear the injera and use it to scoop up the food.  We think Cole will do well with Ethiopian dining since we constantly have to remind him to use his fork (despite the fact that he is seven!).  After we ate, we enjoyed some hot tea.

It was really fun trying Ethiopian food and getting a little taste of what our kids eat on a daily basis.  There were several groups of Ethiopian customers that came in while we were there, and I enjoyed hearing them speak Amharic, too.  We began some online parent education courses last night (one of our agency’s requirements), so we were able to talk about a few of the things we learned over lunch.  We also received a big notebook of materials from our agency yesterday.  Inside are resources as well as all the information we need to get our dossier together.  So, as you can imagine, we’ll be really busy with that for the next few weeks. It’s a little overwhelming, but I just plan on doing a few things each day until it’s all done. Well, that’s all for today. Do you know how to say “bye” in Amharic? “Ciao!”