Ethiopian Eats

Good morning – happy Thursday! It’s almost the weekend. How was your Wednesday? Mine was infinitely better than my Monday and Tuesday. For starters, I actually got up and went to the gym before work! YAY. I wasn’t taking another chance that I might not make it after work.

And it turns out my decision to skip the gym on Tuesday night following my stressful day was probably a good one. After reading this article: 4 Tips to Run the Stress Off from active.com, I’m positive that forcing myself to squeeze in that run could have resulted in an injury, or at the very least exhaustion.

What about you – do you back off running when you’re stressed or do you push through and try to work it off during the run?

So I was at the gym and running by 5:45 a.m. on Wednesday and since there weren’t many people clamouring for a treadmill at that time, I was able to run 6 miles guilt-free. I ran it in 52:20. I did a few ab exercises, but I wanted to be sure I got to work on time, so it was pretty quick.

While I was at the gym, I realized that I had completely forgotten my food bag for the day. It was sitting on the kitchen counter all alone. So I stopped at the Food Emporium on the way to the subway and picked up a few things to tide me over throughout the day. No clue where my head was yesterday morning – probably still in bed asleep.

I got to work a little early and proceeded to have my make-shift breakfast of a gnu bar with coffee and a clementine.

I loved this bar and the banana walnut flavor! Yum – I will be buying this one again.

My mid-morning snack was an apple and I was ravenous by the time I ate it at 11:00 a.m.

For lunch, since I forgot my food bag, I had to run out in the cold to get a salad. Yesterday’s salad had romaine lettuce, carrots, cheddar cheese, cucumbers, chickpeas and peas.

Later afternoon snacks were Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean cereal and a small bag of walnuts and raisins (undocumented).

All day I was thinking about what I needed to do after work – stop at the store, do the dishes, tidy up the apartment and make dinner. And then around 3:00 p.m. my friend Katie texted me and asked if I was free to go to dinner. Normally I’m not free – I’d be going to the gym. But since I’d already done that, I told her yes, I was very much free!

Katie and I like to try a variety of cultural and ethnic foods. Last night, we decided to try Ethiopian food at the appropriately titled: The Ethiopian Restaurant in my neck of the woods.

We started with the Sambussa appetizer, which was very small and was two, cooked ground-beef and classically-spiced patties.

We then split two entrees: 1) the ethiopian combo which was a combination of yebeg alecha, tibs wot, tikel gomen, misr wot and yabesh gomen; and 2) a chicken dish with the house sauce and spices.

I loved almost everything on the plate. The bean/lentil dish was a little too spicy for my taste, but I still ate a bit of it. And the cabbage and carrot portion was amazing!

My friend warned me that I may or may not like the bread because it has a unique texture and some people love it or hate it. I loved it!! It’s called injera.

Footfit.com’s page on Ethiopian food is really interesting – check it out! Here’s a small snippet.

“The cooking of the oldest independent country in Africa stars an array of spices that give its stews, sautéed meats, and vegetable dishes a deep, rich, aromatic, oft-times fiery taste….At the heart of Ethiopian cooking is injera, a flat bread that looks like a large pancake but has a spongy texture and a tangy taste reminiscent of sour dough. Injera is made from a tiny, highly nutritious grain called teff that is rich in fiber, iron, protein and calcium.”

Not only is inerja yummy and nutritious, it’s also your utensil throughout the whole meal. You pick up the various meats, veggies, etc. using this bread. And it works really well.

All in all, it was a great meal. The owner kept coming over to check on us, which was very nice and even offered to take our picture.

Don’t mind my slicked-back hair. That’s what happens when you shower at the gym in the morning and then put a hat right on. A nice little flat-head.

So what do you think – would you ever give Ethiopian food a try? What interesting or new food/cuisine have you tried lately?

I for one highly recommend you give it a shot! I was nervous going in because I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but it was great!

Have a great day everyone!