Saturday in Toronto

We were off to Toronto yesterday because there was a workshop for physiotherapists that I wanted to check out. Matthew came along being the good husband that he is (-: and while I was at the workshop he said he had a great day. When I came out from the workshop he had a bunch of Ethiopian goodies to show me. I guess he found an Ethiopian spice store and bought a bunch of things including: fenugreek (a spice used commonly), teff (used to make injera), green coffee beans from the Harar region, jebana (a traditional coffee pot) and even some injera (Ethiopian bread) that they told him we could keep in the freezer until we are ready to use it. He said the ladies at the shop were really nice, made coffee for him and they were telling him how they are in the midst of putting an Ethiopian cookbook together as well. He said the older lady had a tattoo of a cross on her forehead. I have seen this a few times now in different pictures as well and I would like to learn more about it. It seems as though it may be a cultural/religious thing, does anyone know more about this?

After he picked me up we checked out another Ethiopian restaurant for dinner together and picked up an Ethiopian cookbook called "recipe of love".

If anyone is interested in getting that cookbook it costs $30 (I think $10 shipping if you can't make it to Toronto) and the website is.
here: http://www.recipeoflove.com/default.asp

It looks like a good book, with lots of pictures. It has a recipe for injera (with barley flower as a substitute for Teff), doro wat and a variety of vegie, beef and chicken recipes. If anyone is thinking of getting it and wonders if it has a recipe for their favourite dish feel free to leave me a comment and I will check in the book for you and let you know. Has anyone been brave enough to order kitfo at a restaurant yet?? I am just curious if anyone has liked it. It is a raw beef dish. I tend to like my meat well cooked so I have chickened out on this one, but maybe someday I will feel adventurous and give it a try.

recipe of love

stuff from the spice shop

the jebana (coffee pot) for Matthew to brew his Buna (coffee) in.

..

We also got this book in the mail on Friday called "E is for Ethiopia". It is an "A to Z" book for kids, with each letter showing something from Ethiopia. http://members.shaw.ca/eisforethiopia/

Proceeds from the book purchase go to providing books for kids in Ethiopia which is cool.

The pictures below are from the interenet but I wanted to show what some of the foods I was talking about look like for people reading my blog who have not yet had Ethiopian food.

the injera is the bread under the food and rolled up on the sides. You use it in place of a fork when eating.

doro wat (my favourite Ethiopian dish so far). Usually it has a nice piece of chicken in it where the meat is almost falling off the bone. The white thing is a boiled egg. It has a really nice flavour to it.