An experience with Ethiopian cuisine

Getting ready to enjoy our meal at The Blue Nile
Digging in with no utensils. My kids were in heaven! An excuse to eat with their hands like they like to do !

I have been wanting to take the family to an Ethiopian restaurant for awhile now. I thought it would be a great way to kick off the New Year since 2011 will be the year (God willing) that we bring our new daughter home. The morning of January 2nd was an interesting one. As Matt and I woke up we were pleasantly surprised to look out the window and see the most beautiful pink and orange sky out our window. We have been in this house six months now and I don't ever recall seeing effects from a sunrise from our bedroom window. Our bedroom window is just not positioned for us to enjoy them. But for whatever reason this morning, the view was beautiful. My first thought after enjoying the color and thanking God for the day was of our daughter in Ethiopia. 2010 was quite an interesting one and I had to rely more on God for patience and to surrender to His timing than ever before. And with God's help I think I did an OK job. Which is, perhaps, why that morning I felt especially impatient, eager, and a little anxious. We have been in this adoption process for almost a year now and I am ready to embrace our daughter and love her. I know that we still have a long way to go in this journey, just as I know that on the morning of January 2nd it was no coincidence that God allowed us to see his beautiful artistry in the sky as a reminder to trust Him and delight in His magnificent ways in 2011 just as we did in 2010. Feeling renewed from that promise, I told everyone that we were going to eat at The Blue Nile that night to experience some Ethiopian food.

I thought the kids would grumble but they were willing and even eager. We ended up ordering a combination plate that included Doro Alicha, Key fit fit, fasolia bekarot, and cabbage. This was pretty much seasoned chicken, lamb, and beef with berbere sauce and onions and other seasonings topped with a hard boiled egg. I also ordered a vegetarian dish that was fresh carrots, potatoes, string beans, and peppers cooked with tumeric, seasoned and spiced. The whole meal is served on a big tray of injera which is a flat, tangy, crepe like bread made out of teff, wheat and corn flours. They also gave us extra injera that you tear off and scoop up the food with. So there are no utensils. I really enjoyed all of it. At one pint Matt had to ask the waiter for a fork so Brooke could eat the egg. You could tell he was disappointed because he thought we were cheating, but when Matt told him she just wanted it for the egg he was fine with that. When he came back and saw how well we were doing without utensils he smiled and gave us the thumbs up. Matt was very impressed that I ate at this restaurant. It wasn't quite in a strip mall, but it wasn't someplace I would ever suggest to go into. Matt knows I do not eat ethnic food located in a strip mall. It was all of those years of living in Houston listening to Marvin Zindler on the nightly news telling us what is "NOT on the Menu." It was always SLIME IN THE ICEBOX and it was almost always at a restaurant at a strip mall. Since then, I don't do strip mall restaurants. Yes, I am weird! Anyway, I have found myself craving the flavors of the food and want to go back. Better yet, maybe I need to try to cook some of it myself. It was a great way to top off a day filled with promise and hope.

The quote in my devotion book today reads - God's guidance in the past gives us courage for the future. Yes, it does.