Ethiopia

What is it about Ethiopian food? Once I have it with someone and I suggest trying another country’s food, they say, "Let's have Ethiopian food again!" I love Ethiopian food! I'm not complaining about having it over and over. I can have it both close to home at Ayda Ethiopian Restaurant in Loma Linda and with more variety in Little Ethiopia, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. The article at this link reviews several of the Little Ethiopia restaurants that I am eating my way through: https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/blog/definitive-guide-little-ethiopia

Because Ethiopian and Eritrean food are so similar, I posted some authentic recipes in my Eritrea blog. Here I’m posting some recipes that have been adjusted to use what we have in our local grocery stores: https://www.aspicyperspective.com/ethiopian-recipes-injera-doro-wat/. Warning on these recipes: play with them for yourself, but don’t make them for an Ethiopian! I know this because of all the times I tried taking my Jamaican sister-in-law, an amazing cook, to Jamaican restaurants in Los Angeles. Most of the time, even Jamaicans can’t make their food right according to her, so I certainly couldn’t, especially if I’m substituting ingredients. This is also true for Italian food for my daughter’s Italian boyfriend, another incredible cook. The best restaurant choice I ever made for him was a Peruvian place in Walnut Creek – he had never had Peruvian food and wouldn’t know if it was done authentically. The point here is that the recipes above get close to Ethiopian food with ingredients you probably have, so if you don’t have a local Ethiopian restaurant, they are worth trying.

Ethiopia keeps their ancient history alive, some of which you can see in the PBS series on Africa's Great Civilizations, Episode 2: “The Cross and the Crescent.” It shows Aksum, a kingdom centered in ancient northern Ethiopia, and Yeha, the legendary home of the Queen of Sheba; traces early Christianity in that part of Africa; and proposes one theory on what happened to the Ark of the Covenant. If you have a membership to PBS either through their website or on Amazon Prime, you can watch it there without advertisements. The free version with ads is here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x749270. Other episodes from the same series also touch on Ethiopia. “Cities” (Episode 4) shows 16th century Ethiopia including Gondar. “Commerce and the Clash of Civilizations” (Episode 6) has a section on The Battle of Adwa when Italy tried and failed to take Ethiopia. I’m a big fan of the narrator Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and this entire series.

Ethiopian Jews claim to be descended from the legendary son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba three thousand years ago, but many had to flee the country in the mid-1980s. The Red Sea Diving Resort on Netflix is based on that story. Allan and I enjoyed it.

Not many tourists drive Ethiopia from north to south, but Michael Palin was on a quest to go from the North Pole to the South Pole in 1992 just after the end of the Ethiopian civil war. The episode that takes him through Ethiopia can be found here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6s3uxa. I have mixed feelings about recommending this video. I loved seeing parts of Ethiopia that other films don’t show. I wasn’t super excited about his complaints. If you draw a line on the globe and assume there is a road there with good public transportation, you will probably end up with something to complain about.

I enjoyed the Khan Academy survey of Ethiopian art starting with the ancient and then, if you click through the pages, ending with the contemporary artist Julie Mehretu: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/east-africa2/ethiopia/a/christian-ethiopian-art

I also enjoyed the videos I found when searching for Ethiopian music on YouTube. Here is just one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_ZC3VuNgU8. If you are wondering why this guy reminds you of Bob Marley, that’s the Ethiopian flag he’s wearing and here’s an explanation of why there is a statue of Bob Marley in Ethiopia: https://www.houstoniamag.com/travel-and-outdoors/2017/06/why-is-there-a-statue-of-bob-marley-in-ethiopia

Ethiopia has one of my favorite books, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It is a long book, dense with medical terminology, but worth it for a look into recent Ethiopian history and a well-crafted story rich with wisdom in family relationships. I listened to it on CD from the library. It is also available on Overdrive.

I was surprised by how many books on European explorations of Ethiopia can be found on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Ethiopia&submit_search=Go%21

There are also many movies and documentaries on Ethiopia to be found on Kanopy and Amazon Prime. To experience something different than the glimpse of the churches, the sample of music, and the little bit of history above, I chose to watch “Erta Ale – Compact Fury of Lava Lakes” from the Great Courses series on The World’s Greatest Geological Wonders.

I have barely touched Ethiopia’s cool geology, ancient civilizations, proud history, and delicious food. More of what we might do on a real trip to Ethiopia can be found here: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-ethiopia/

When this pandemic is over (and I think there is some light at the end of the tunnel), you might want to plan travel to Ethiopia using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Ethiopia and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rogueangel/26086801540/