Cafe Abyssinia (#235, 11/12/12)
15 Years of Worry
I am thinking that if I’m going to eat at every restaurant in New Orleans, I’ll have to eat at every restaurant in New Orleans. So time to venture out a little bit and try some Ethiopian food from Cafe Abyssinia on Magazine Street. Interestingly, there are two Ethiopian restaurants in New Orleans. I’m really not sure what to make of that; I guess it just means that I will be eating more Ethiopian food. Perhaps. Having done absolutely no research, I just went for the kifko, which is some sort of beef dish that seemed like it may be spicy. Beef seems good, right? And spicy is always good. Well, hindsight being 20/20, maybe not the best option. I read up on this kifko character and found out that it’s raw beef. Reading on, I find out that those unphased by raw beef can move onto other treats. However, I quickly became distracted looking up mad cow disease, which it turns out isn’t really transmittable to humans. However, it causes something else in humans, which will usually kill you, though the symptoms can take up to 15 years to manifest. So anyway, if anyone notices psychotic behavior, dementia or coma from me from now until 2027, it is likely due to the kifko. Turns out I might be phased by eating raw beef. My point is, next time, I may stick with chicken. Assuming nothing bad can come from eating birds, right?
I guess the basics…the food is served on a big platter and you tear off pieces of thin bread…almost tortilla-like, but not really (if that helps – wait, maybe the picture will help, the bread is the rolled up stuff at the top, and that white stuff is some sort of feta-like cheese, which apparently is good on the kifko. It prevent’s mad cow disease. But I didn’t realize that, so I didn’t use any; again, that damn hindsight thing). Back to the food, so it’s a good skill to properly tear the bread; it shouldn’t be that hard to tear a good and useful square, but I struggled. Anyway, you tear off hunks of bread and then sort of scoop up the food, squeezing up pieces with the bread and eating it. All of the food is essentially mushy. Man, I am thinking this isn’t selling the place. The lentils were good, so it has that going for it. Honestly, it wasn’t bad, I’m just struggling now due to a little dementia setting in.
Oh, it’s also BYOB, so bring some drinks if you like.
As far as the picture, my first effort at a photo on this blog, was described by one friend, “So Ethiopian food is school cafeteria leftovers?” Actually, good guess, but no, what it is, is a lot of raw beef. Mmmm.