Ethiopian cooking is a family affair - for chef and diners

(May 16, 2012, Nottingham Evening Post)--A PAINTING on a wall in Habesha restaurant shows what Sami Yeamer describes as a traditional Ethiopian mealtime scene. A handful of people, grown-ups and children, sit around a single, large plate of food. “The way it’s served is the way to keep family and friends together,” says Sami, who owns Habesha with wife Maite Hailu.

He recalls his grandfather telling him that to sit down and eat together, you had to first make peace. “That’s the kind of love we want to bring here,” he says. “We want to bring families together.”

Ethiopian dining is communal dining, and that’s what they do at Habesha. They’ve got all sorts of Ethiopian food on the menu, but if you’re with others and really want to have an experience, a mahaberawi might be best. 

A sort of sampler platter of beef, lamb and chicken dishes with vegetables, pickles and salad, it’s served in a large, round plate on a bed of injera, a pancake-like flatbread that’s an Ethiopian staple. It also serves as your cutlery - you rip off chunks, scoop up the food and eat mains and “cutlery” all at once.

Other favourite dishes include shiro wot, a powdered chickpea dish, and doro wot, a dish featuring chicken, seasoned butter, other seasonings and a boiled egg. “We used to ask the grandmothers and grandfathers why they cook the traditional doro wot with the egg in,” Sami says. “And they say they don’t want to separate the chicken from the egg.”

Afterwards, diners can wash it down with cups of traditional Ethiopian coffee, roasted and ground in the restaurant and served in elegant Ethiopian coffee pots. Before Habesha, you’d usually have to go south to find this kind of cooking in England. “We have been to London and eaten (Ethiopian food) there,” Sami says. “But we wanted to do it in Nottingham.”

Sami and Maite came to the UK, and Nottingham, in 2006. He’s originally from the capital, Addis Ababa, while she comes from the western Ethiopian market town of Nekemte. Her family owns a restaurant there, and her mother helped by sending proper Ethiopian spices and other foodstuffs when they were setting up the restaurant.  Read more from Nottingham Evening Post »

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