|
|
§ Home § Our Dedication for Enat § Our Delightful Menu § Ethiopian Culture § Catering Services § Restaurant Reviews § Special Events § Contact Us |
Restaurant Review - February 2005
|
Enat Ethiopia Cafe
& Mart ETHIOPIA PRIDES ITSELF on hospitality, and eating Ethiopian is a
ritual of many pleasures. An Ethiopian table has family. It has community.
And it has great food. All of these can be found on the cheesiest strip of Cheshire Bridge
Road in a tiny restaurant called Enat, which means "mother" in
Amharic. The building, painted bright yellow, is little more than a block of
concrete, shaped like a shoe box. Inside, owner Martha Kebede has brightened this difficult space with
rows of elaborately decorated tables and mesob, the traditional Ethiopian
table made from colorfully woven wicker and straw with a characteristic
dome top. The center of the mesob is large and round, the perfect placemat
for the communal platters lined with injera that are at the heart of every
Ethiopian meal. Each time I visit, I wonder and worry for Kebede, because the
restaurant is almost always empty. Her homespun food is not the reason.
Nor is her sunny smile and understated cordiality. She is as gracious serving a bowl of her hearty, seasoned kei wot (a
kind of stew) as she is in setting up a space heater (borrowed from a
traditional coffee ceremony setting) of coals to take the chill off our
feet, since the restaurant is always chilly. In the front room, she
has a small bar with glass panels filled with Ethiopian wines adjacent to
postcards, posters and T-shirts from or about Ethiopia. And from her menu, she serves basic Ethiopian dishes with warmth and
flavor. Kitfo, the classic Ethiopian dish of diced raw beef mixed with
spiced butter (called nit'r qibe), is here lean and luscious, not as laden
with butter as it often is. It's said that Ethiopians love butter so much they will mix it into
coffee, so it's no surprise the spiced butter, usually mixed with mitmita
(spicy chili powder) is an integral ingredient in most dishes. Kebede
makes kitfo with a lighter hand than most, warming the raw meat just a bit
and seasoning it with enough mitmita to color it. To eat it is like eating
a bite of satin-textured, raw spices, slightly warmed, its fiery flavor
coddled by the mild cheese (ayeb) that sits beside it on the platter. Ethiopian meals are always eaten with injera, the country's ubiquitous,
tangy flatbread that is used as both fork and plate, surrounded by little
mounds of vegetables and meats. Tear a crepe-thin piece and use it to
gather a big bite of Kebede's unbelievable lentils: dark, rich and warm,
the kind you'd expect a mother to make. Yellow split peas are mixed with
onion and garlic and a tiny hit of ginger and turmeric. They are always
the first thing to go, leaving the injera saucy, spongey and perfect for
mopping up the lettuce-and-tomato chopped salad in the center of the
platter. Beef and lamb are the most common meats, since pork is rarely, if ever,
eaten. Tibs is a popular way to eat both, and Kebede serves lamb or beef
tibs seasoned with spiced butter and mixed into a stewlike concoction of
onions, rosemary and tomatoes. She also serves a mean fitfit, a spicy
mixture of shredded injera, tomatoes and hot green peppers. Once everything has been sopped up, the real treat is to tear off bites
of the remaining injera; it will have soaked up the juices from everything
on it. Sometimes Kebede serves kootee, a hot tea brewed from Ethiopian coffee
leaves and spiced with cardamom, or yekemem shai — black tea laced with
cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. The heady warmth of the tea, along with Kebede's sweet nature, takes
the chill off the stark room and leaves you feeling loved and cared for by
the end of the meal.
|
Outstanding. Sets the standard for fine dining in the region.
Excellent. One of the best in the Atlanta area.
Good. A worthy addition to its neighborhood, but food may be hit or
miss.