SEATTLE — When my editor gave the go-ahead for a visit to a restaurant serving Ethiopian food, I found a fearless friend and we visited one with easy freeway access and parking on three sides, just to make the trek to Seattle relatively painless.
Habesha Ethiopian Restaurant is part of the South Lake Union renaissance. It’s a small eatery that’s housed in a restored brick building that boasts hand-made paper lanterns by a local artist, a backlit bar at the far end of the dining room that adds uptown class, and the aroma of spice combinations that are somewhat like those used in Indian food but a little different.
My friend (who highly recommends the lunch buffet that’s served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for $7.95) and I visited on a recent Friday night before venturing over to the current exhibit at Seattle Art Museum. We skipped the traditional wine — Tej ($6 a glass or $24 for a bottle), which is fermented honey much like mead. The restaurant’s wine list also includes familiar red and white choices from Italy, California and Washington, and there’s nothing over $27. Most beers from Ethiopia are much like pilsners, and seven of them are served from bottles at Habesha for $5 each.
Ethiopian cuisine relies on complex spice and herb combinations. One standard mix is berbere, which uses cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, garlic, onions, black pepper and dried red chilis. Berbere was used to flavor our fish asa wot ($13), which is a thick stew.
We also ordered the vegetable combination ($13) that included small mounds of spinach, cabbage, lentils, split yellow peas, okra and carrot strips with green beans. Everything was served on a 20-inch platter lined with a round of flatbread much like a pancake that’s made with teff, an ancient grain.
We were given forks but decided to enjoy our dinner the traditional way. So we tore off a small piece of our bread and used this to pick up bites of fish or vegetable. And every bite was a taste treat. The cabbage became one of our favorites but the spinach was really good, too, as was the okra.
For me, the bati tibs appetizer ($7) was the most flavor-intensive dish. It’s very much like a salad topped with beef strips, and the vinegar-chili salad dressing and the exquisite marinade made it an interesting and delicious taste treat.
Easy freeway access, lots of parking, wonderful food that’s not your everyday fare … be brave.
Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.
Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.
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