Dinner at Queen of Sheba
Americans have become used to seeing ethnic restaurants if they’re Chinese or Italian or Indian. But the native cuisines of East Africa have been less common. That is changing. Within the past few years, such restaurants have opened up in cities like Tampa, Atlanta, Denver, Las Vegas, Louisville, St. Louis, Ann Arbor, and Baltimore. In Los Angeles, South Fairfax Avenue alone hosts no fewer than eight. So wherever you are, it’s likely you can find Ethiopian & Eritrean food near you, and if you can’t, that you soon will.
Traditionally, Ethiopian & Eritrean cuisine is served with injera, a sourdough-style flatbread that is made from a grain called teff. The main courses consist of thick stews which are ladled onto one piece of injera, while other pieces of injera are served separately for you to use to pick up the stew. By having everyone’s dinner on one large piece of injera, you are free to not only eat your own, but try your tablemates’ choices as well. Your utensils are your fingers, but since you are using the bread to pick up the stews, hygiene shouldn’t be an issue. Just wash your hands before dinner, use the injera, and enjoy.
The various stews have either beef, lamb, chicken, lentils, or chickpeas as the main ingredient, and are heavily spiced, though not necessarily hot, and are simmered with vegetables like spinach, tomatoes, and onions. Individual cooks use their own recipes, and there are regional differences within Ethiopia and Eritrea, so if you visit one restaurant and don’t care for it, you may have better luck at another. Also, if you suspect the food might be too hot for you to eat, ask the waiter or the cook if fewer spices could be used in your portion of the meal.
One of my favorite restaurants is Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian & Eritrean Restaurant near the Loop in St. Louis. The owner, Tareke Beraki, a native of Eritrea, uses his own family’s recipes for the food as well as the honey wine. He also serves the Kenyan beer Tusker, which is a Western-style lager.
At this particular dinner, I and my dinner companions took the opportunity to order a wide variety from the menu, including key wot (beef stew), spicy chicken breast, lamb tibs, kitfo, and yesimir key wot (lentil stew). Traditionally, kitfo is ground hamburger heavily seasoned and served raw, but Mr. Beraki browns the beef that comes to the table, so you don’t have to worry about undercooked meat here. At other restaurants, you may wish to check with the waiter to confirm your kitfo will be cooked.
Everything was great, though the chicken, despite being billed as “spicy,” was actually not. The item with the most heat was the key wot, but even so, the hotness was mild enough to be no more than a slight tingling.
Queen of Sheba also features a full bar, live music on occasion, and belly dancing on the last Sunday of the month. They now also serve breakfast, though the only non-American dish on the menu is fool mudammes, a sort of Egyptian chili that contains beans, onions, and peppers.
After one visit, you’re sure to want to visit again!
Copyright Martha Kneib. Published 1 September 2009 in What’s New.
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