Ethiopian Cuisine

Ethiopian cooking is one of the most distinctive cuisines in the world, and it resembles nothing else in Africa or the Middle East — neither in its ingredients nor in how it's eaten.

Injera

Injera is a spongy flatbread made from teff flour (a very small, gluten-free grain), fermented for three days. It's spread over a large tray with every dish placed on it, and people tear pieces to lift the food — so it is plate and utensil at once.

Berbere

The Ethiopian spice blend: red chilli, fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. Very hot and very deep, it's the base of most of the wat (stew) dishes.

Niter kibbeh

Clarified butter simmered with garlic, ginger, cardamom, fenugreek and Ethiopian basil. It keeps for months and gives depth to any dish it enters.

Eating together

Ethiopian food is served on one tray that everyone eats from, without cutlery. There's also a custom called gursha — feeding the person next to you by hand as a sign of friendship.