Thursday, April 25, 2013

Ethiopia



Population: 84.7 million

Capital: Addis Ababa

Language: Amharic language phrases: Hello (Tena Yistiligne) Goodbye (chow)

Currency: Ethiopian Birr

Climate:  The temperature varies depending on the region one is in.  The desert can get as hot as 140 F, but the central region gets as low as 43 F.

Religion:  Orthodox Christianity is the most popular religion practiced in Ethiopia followed by Islam.

Sports: Distance running is the most well known sport in Ethiopia.  Haile Gebreselassie has set over twenty new world records and currently holds 2 of those records.  Ethiopia has been known to sweep the medals at both world championships and Olympics.  Football (soccer) is also a popular sport.  The national team hasn't won a cup since 1962 when it won the African Cup of Nations, but it is still very supported by the people.

Famous people: Liya Kebede is a famous model from Ethiopia seen in adds for H&M, J. Crew and Estee Lauder, but also acted in Lord of War.  Zahara Jolie-Pitt, a child adopted by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is from Ethiopia.

Flag:



Facts:
* Recognized as the oldest independent nation in Africa, one of the few to never lose its independence
* Archaeological findings stretch back some 4.4 million years
* The oldest person was found in Ethiopia, Lucy
* Visas are required for all foreign visitors to Ethiopia
* Ethiopia follows the Julian calendar which is comprised of 12 months which have 30 days each and then a 13th month which has five or six days.
*New years is celebrated September 11th and Christmas January 7th
* Known as the Horn of Africa


Culture:  Ethiopia has a diverse culture with different indigenous and modern groups.  Ethiopia is known for how they eat.  They do not use utensils  but rather scoop their food up with Injero bread.  They eat around large woven baskets where they place big platters of food that everyone eats from.  Their food mainly consists of vegetables and meat and rarely has fish or pork.  Ethiopia is also famous for Ras Tafari Haile Selassie I emperor of Ethiopia   He is believed to be the biblical Messiah of the Rastafarian Religion.  Ethiopia is known as Zion to the Rastafarian's and the true home and redemption of black people.


Activity

I was super excited to study about Ethiopia because of the Rastafarian influence.  I love Reggae music and Bob Marley, a follower of the Rastafarian religion, we even named our first born after one of his songs.  I do not believe in the religion, but have always loved dread locks, Reggae music and how happy and laid back everyone related to Rastafarian was.  I knew Ethiopia played a large part in the Rastafarian religion and was excited to learn more about it.

 For our activity we decided to try one of the many Ethiopian restaurants in Salt Lake City.  We had seen one while driving down State Street and I asked Megan to look it up and see what their hours were so we could go after work one day.  She thought she had looked up the same restaurant we had seen but it ended up being a different one just a few blocks south on State and 1400 south.


When we arrived at the restaurant we actually went in the shop side first.  There were several items for sale, the colors green, red and yellow standing out as the main theme of the items.  We soon realized we were on the wrong side, stepped out and entered the restaurant side.  One thing I noticed was the guy that greeted us, who I figured was the owner, and I was right, asked us where we wanted to sit.  It isn't very often that you go to a restaurant in the United States and you can pick where to sit.  Usually you are sat right next to the only other people in the whole place and can't move even if you ask.   We picked a table close to the kitchen, far from the only other diners in the place, and across from a traditional eating area.

the traditional eating area

this was set up for coffee
The owner was very friendly, he told us his name but I do not remember what it was.  He gave us our menus and asked what we would like to drink, I said water and Megan asked for a diet coke.  He brought us both waters and the diet coke never came.  We decided to get the sampler for two.  Neither of us have ever eaten Ethiopian food so we figured we might as well try a bit of everything.

We talked to the owner for a bit, he was really friendly in the beginning.  He explained we would need to read the instructions on how to eat Ethiopian food and also told us about the traditional eating area that we were sitting across from.  I was hoping that I could ask him some questions about his history and how he came to the United States but after he took our order he no longer seemed to have the time to talk to us.  I only got that he is from Ethiopia and the restaurant had been open just over a year.

the instructions on how to eat the food




There were some ladies in the kitchen that kept sticking their heads out to waive at our kids so I picked Kaya up and took her over to the window.  The women seemed to all of a sudden become very busy when I did that and would not come and talk to me.   We ended up taking a few pictures of the place while waiting for our food and that was it.




When the food came Megan explained that her boss had told her about this place and explained that when eating the food you don't get utensils  just injero bread.  The instructions of how to eat were also on the pamphlet on the table but I just glanced over it.  Megan read it in depth and I could tell she was trying to figure out how to get the food into the injero bread because when we started to eat we discovered it was actually quite hard to pick the food up with the bread.






The bread was very spongy and I'll be honest, after a while I got really sick of the taste of it.  I was tempted to get the spoon out of the diaper bag that Megan had brought for the babies but thought that would be rude and perhaps culturally offensive   Other than the bread I actually did like the food.  There were different portions of meat, peppers and other foods that I had no idea what they were, but they tasted good.  We gave the kids a lot of the bread and they seemed to love it.  Shia really liked the chicken and Kaya ate everything we gave her.  I noticed Megan stopped eating long before I did, she later told me that she also did not like the bread and the food was too spicy for her.  I hardly noticed the spice.

the lady from the kitchen came over to say hello
Our meal was quickly coming to an end and I still felt I had not talk enough with the owner.  Twice more I tried to approach him and I even sent Megan to pay the bill and asked her to talk with him. She came back to the table and said he had told her to go sit down and he would bring her the credit card.  I came to the assumption that perhaps he was too busy to take the time to chat, even though there was only one new family that came in the whole time we were there.  Perhaps he feels pressure to look busy and take care of his business.  I wished I could set up an appointment with him to sit and chat, but felt awkward doing that.

We ended up leaving with only a few answered questions, but a good experience.  I don't think either of us will have the desire to eat Ethiopian food again, but lots of people do like it and it is always good to try something new.  One thing that stood out was Megan mentioned she was surprised that her boss had eaten Ethiopian food.  We had never thought to seek out Ethiopian food, we didn't even know it was that different.  She mentioned that her family never went and ate exotic food growing up, Chinese, Mexican and Italian were their idea of ethnic food.  She was impressed that her boss had such a diverse pallet.  It is something we want our kids to grow up doing, eating different types of food so it becomes second nature to try new and exotic things!




No comments:

Post a Comment