A few years ago I had Ethiopian cuisine for the first time at a restaurant in San Francisco and I loved it. I then lamented the fact that while there seem to be a few Ethiopian restaurants in San Francisco and Berkeley, I knew of none in the South Bay. Well, a few months ago, we realized that Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant is actually quite close to where we live. We had always meant to try it, but never did, until Nicole’s friend mentioned that she ate there a few days ago and enjoyed it. That was all the impetus we needed to go and try it ourselves.
The food was great. We started with an appetizer of Sambusas – thin dough shells stuffed with lentils, onion, hot green & herbs, lightly fried in vegetable oil. After that, Nicole had the Ye Doro Tibs – boneless, skinless cubed chicken sauteed in a special blend of spices and braised in onions tomato, green pepper and purified butter. I had the
Zilzil Tibs – strip of tender beef sauteed in purified butter, seasoned with onions, green pepper, fresh rosemary. They were served together, along with a simple salad on a large piece of spongey Ethiopia flatbread called injera. It was all very tasty, reasonably priced (our check came out to $23), and we even came home with leftovers. I think we’ll be coming back many times.
And it was educational, because while waiting for our food, I looked up Ethiopia on Wikipedia, and learned a few interesting things about Ethiopia. For instance:
- It has one of the most extensive known histories as an independent nation on the continent, or indeed in the world.
- It was once under Italian occupation.
- Ethiopia has 84 indigenous languages.