Prior to ordering food, we ordered Ethiopian beverages, including beer and wine. Ethiopian beer is popular and there are many different brands. Meta beer is brewed outside of Addis Ababa and is the brewery owned by the Ethiopian government, as well as private companies. The water used in making this beer is, according to Ethiopianrestaurant.com, “from a big reserve of soft spring water (locally known as holy water of St. Abo). The spring water meets the international brew standard to be used without any treatment.” Saint George beer is the oldest brewing company in Ethiopia, started in 1922, but we ended up ordering Harar beer from the Harar Brewery. The Harar Brewery is located in Harar, which is in eastern Ethiopia and considered the fourth holiest Islamic city and sells beer all over the world. Harar Beer tasted similar to a pilsner to us; they also offer a Harar Stout, which is darker. Harar beer products are apparently ubiquitous in Ethiopia, especially Harar Sofi, which is a non-alcoholic beer frequently consumed by the Muslim population in Ethiopia and abroad.  

We also ordered two different types of wine: a honey meade wine (known as Tej) and Axumit, a sweet red wine. Dukem describes Axumit as ”the fancy refined brother of Gouder [a traditional Ethiopian red wine with a distinct flavor] , made with intention to export. Made in Ethiopia from the finest grapes the country has to offer.” Wikipedia notes that the name Axumit refers to:

an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from the proto-Aksumite period ca. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. Its ancient capital is found in northern Ethiopia. The Kingdom used the name “Ethiopia” as early as the 4th century. It is also the alleged resting place of the Ark of the Covenant and the purported home of the Queen of Sheba. Aksum was also the first major empire to convert to Christianity.

To us, the wine tasted like a sweet dessert wine, with a slightly different flavor than other dessert wines. Gouder is also described as being dry, as compared to Axumit, which is a sweet wine. We also tried Tej, Ethiopian honey wine (meade). This wine was said to have been created during the reign of Queen of Sheba. Tej is so popular that it is considered Ethiopia’s national beverage. We found it to have a sweet and strange taste unlike other meade, probably because of the usage of native plants.

Perhaps the most distinct feature of Ethiopian food is injera, which is a staple in Ethiopian cuisine. Injera resembles a grey spongy crepe, withone side covered in holes and the other side smooth. Injera is made from teff, a iron-rich grass grown in Northeast Africa. Teff is the smallest of the cereal grains and is only used as a food source in Eritrea, Somalia, and Yemen. In Somalia injera is called laxoox and in Yemen it is known as lahoh. According to Ethiopianrestaurant.com, teff is “believed to have originated in Ethiopia between 4000 and 1000 BC. Teff seeds were discovered in a pyramid thought to date back to 3359 BC.” The process of making injera is straightforward:

Injera preparation usually takes two to three days, the teff is milled into powder then mixed in water along yeast and small quantity of flowers. This mix is set aside at room temperature for 2 days so it ferments and raises. During the second day it starts to give tangy aromas as the fermentation releases air bubbles; this is where the Injera’s slight tangy taste comes from.

After the fermentation process is finished the mix is cooked on hot flat iron pan called ‘Mitad’. A circular motion is used to achieve thin consistency. When the hot pan and the fermented teff mix/batter contact thousands of tiny air bubbles escape, creating thousands of tiny craters/eyes – creating the familiar look of Injera.

The side touching the hot mitad pan gets its flat look, while the one facing away towards the air has the a porous structure with thousands of mini craters. This pour us structure allows the injera to be a good bread to scoop up sauces and dishes. (Ethiopianrestaurant.com)

We ended up ordering a bunch of different items to try and get a taste of all the types of food. Everything was served hot on a bed of injera, along with plates of additional injera, folded in triangles (served at room temperature). We attempted to order a variety of meats, including lamb, chicken, and beef. They do not typically serve pork at Ethiopian restaurants, due to Islamic dietary restrictions. We ordered the three staple types of dishes: wot (wat), tibs, kitfo, and fitfit. A variety of different Wot dishes appeared on the menu, although it was rather hard to figure out the differences between all of them. Wot dishes are all highly seasoned stews using chicken, beef, lamb, or vegetables. The preparation that makes Ethiopian stews different from other countries is that they always begin by cooking chopped onions in a dry pot until all the moisture has escaped, then they begin adding other ingredients. Also, Ethiopian spices are central to their dishes. The most common spice preparation is berbere, which is a red ground mixture composed of chili peppers, ginger, cloves, coriander, allspice, rue berries, and ajwain (also mistakenly known as bishop’s weed). In addition to berbere, Ethiopian dishes also contain niter kibbeh, a clarified butter simmered with spices such as cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, or nutmeg before straining.  Our Wot dishes varied quite a bit. Some of them were very spicy, while others were quite mild. All were rich in color with the exception of Doro Wot, which was a yellow chicken stew. This type of Wot came with a hard boiled egg, which is typical of the dish. Along with Wot, we also ordered tibs, which are a type of grilled/sauteed meat typically served as a sign of respect. Kitfo is a traditional dish that features rare or raw meat served atop a stew. The one we ordered came with fresh Ethiopian cheese, which tasted like a thicker and milder cottage cheese, and is typical of the dish. Finally, fitfit (firfir) dishes we ordered differed from the others because they contained torn up pieces of injera. Fitfit is a common breakfast item, but we were served it for dinner.

Ethiopian cuisine proved to be very vegetarian-friendly, with a variety of legumes included on the patters as well as seasoned cabbage, etc. Apparently, Ethiopia developed a large amount of vegetarian dishes due to religious influences. Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia typically abstain from animal products during fasting days and these dishes are standard and common throughout the whole country (Ethiopianrestaurant.com). Dukem served many vegetarian platters.

We didn’t try any coffee, but this is an important part of most Ethiopian meals and coffee is a very important part of the Ethiopian diet. They often prepare the beans by cooking them in a pan (like popcorn) before grinding and brewing them.

Dukem features a dessert menu, but these items are not Ethiopian desserts (tiramisu, cake, etc.). There don’t seem to be any traditional desserts that we could find. One of the few sweet dishes appeared on Dukem’s breakfast menu, which described injera being served with honey. We didn’t try any of the breakfast items, but the Ethiopian breakfast looked interesting. One of the menu items was foul mudames, which is a common food item in Egypt made from fava beans.

TOTAL: $175, including taxes and tip or $25/person (for seven entrees, alcoholic beverages, tea, and dessert)

Almost as soon as I walked in I was touched by the husband and wife playing chess at one of the tables. It turns out that the wife was also the only other woman in the place besides myself and also the chef. The place was male dominated, but everyone was extremely polite to me. One of the problems I encountered was the language barrier. The male servers, though very polite and eager to help me, spoke no English. Luckily one of the other patrons translated for me.

Egyptian food is apparently vegetarian friendly and relies heavily on legumes and vegetables, crops common to the Nile Valley. A lot of the dishes on the menu were familiar to me from other Middle Eastern cuisines like baba ghannouj, shawerma, kabob, etc. I’m not sure how these dishes differ from other countries in the Middle East. 

The one dish that stood out was foul mudames (Ful medames), which I ordered. They served it on a plate accompanied by a basket of bread, similar to pita. Apparently this dish is very typical and has an interesting history. Ful translates to “fava beans” and medames means to “buried.” To me the dish tasted similar to refried beans and was rather rustic. Apparently this dish was originally a peasant food, but has now been fully incorporated into the Egyptian diet. The dish is commonly eaten for breakfast and has been described as “like a stone in the stomach.” The bread I was served is also a typical staple of all Egyptian meals which is more heartier and glutinous than typical pita bread and called Eish Masri or Eish Baladi. “Eish” comes from the verb “to live,” which reflects its importance to Egyptian life. I found the dish to be comforting, simple, bland, and filling. I ate the foul mudames using the pita since there were no utensils on the table – I assumed this was how it was done. I also found this recipe, I’m not sure if it is legimatimate or not. 

I was mostly struck by the variety of drinks on the menu rather than the variety of food. Maybe this is because they have a full page of hookah flavors and the restaurant focuses more on people relaxing and drinking. Since it was cold outside I tried Cinnamon with Milk. It came in a glass and was very hot milk with cinnamon in it. It was not sweet and I wondered if I should have added sugar to it (there was some on the table) but I wasn’t sure. Perhaps I picked a boring drink to try, but I was craving cinnamon that day. Their other hot drink options included mint tea, fenugreek with milk, black fenugreek, anise, milk hot chocolate, coffees, teas, hot karkadi, etc. Their cold drink options included karkadi, carob, and tamarind. I wasn’t familiar with the word karkadi, but in English the translation is Hibiscus. Karkadi beverages are apparently very common in North Africa and were said to be the preferred drink of pharaohs. Wikipedia states that in Egypt, “wedding celebrations are traditionally toasted with a glass of hibiscus tea…[and] karkade is used as a means to lower blood pressure if consumed in high amounts.” So, something to consider trying. 

I also decided to order some pastries. They gave me a rather large selection of six pastries for $5.95. These two pieces of three types. These were served warm. The first of these was baspusa (Basbousa), which is made of semolina soaked in syrup. To me it tasted like an extremely sweet and moist pastry with little other flavor. The semolina was soft and did not have the semolina texture of many Indian sweets I am used to. The second pastry was konafa (kanafeh), which was like a bunch of thin semolina noodles fried, soaked in syrup, and then cut into a square. I found this more pleasing than the baspusa because it had more texture. The final item was baklava, but formed into a donut shape with pistachios in the center and being baklava, was delicious. They also had rice pudding, flan, and mahalabia, all types of custard which I did not try.    

For a week night, it wasn’t that full aside from the men smoking hookahs along the walls. I definitely smelled like hookah after I left, but I suppose that’s the nature of the restaurant. 

Total: $16.22 excluding tax (one entree, one beverage, dessert selection)