(July 30, 2012, Washington Post)-- it’s almost midnight, but Zelalem Injera, an Ethiopian bread
factory housed in a cavelike Northeast Washington warehouse, is wide
awake.
As its 30-foot-long injera machine hums, Ethiopian American businessman Kassahun Maru, 61, proudly explains that it cranks out 1,000 of the fermented Frisbee-shaped discs every hour for the region’s growing number of ethnic grocery stores, health food boutiques and Ethiopian restaurants.
Injera — the Ethiopian staple food that doubles as cutlery — is made
from teff, a tiny grain ubiquitous in the Horn of Africa and until
recently almost unknown elsewhere. But the teff that Zelalem Injera uses
is grown in America. The 25-pound sacks stacked along the wall read “Maskal Teff: An Ancient African Grain. Made in Idaho.”
Once solely grown in the rugged Ethiopian highlands, teff is popping up in the windswept fields of the American heartland. Waves of immigrants come to this country seeking a taste of home, but in doing so they change our tastes, too.
Increasingly, cuisine can be a sort of international connective tissue, with people who may never travel to, say, India, now able to choose from five brands of naan in the ethnic foods aisle at Wegmans. The demand for teff has created a ripple effect that reaches from Addis Ababa to Boise to D.C. Read more from Washington Post »
As its 30-foot-long injera machine hums, Ethiopian American businessman Kassahun Maru, 61, proudly explains that it cranks out 1,000 of the fermented Frisbee-shaped discs every hour for the region’s growing number of ethnic grocery stores, health food boutiques and Ethiopian restaurants.
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| Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post |
Once solely grown in the rugged Ethiopian highlands, teff is popping up in the windswept fields of the American heartland. Waves of immigrants come to this country seeking a taste of home, but in doing so they change our tastes, too.
Increasingly, cuisine can be a sort of international connective tissue, with people who may never travel to, say, India, now able to choose from five brands of naan in the ethnic foods aisle at Wegmans. The demand for teff has created a ripple effect that reaches from Addis Ababa to Boise to D.C. Read more from Washington Post »
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