Yesterday I grabbed dinner with my friend and her boyfriend, and the only reason I'll travel to St. Paul is for food, the Asian grocery store, and to catch up with good friends of course.
I've never had Ethiopian cuisine before so I suggested we hit up Fasika. I consider myself to be a fairly adventurous eater, but I definitely have my likes and dislikes. And I'm not sure if it was Fasika or Ethiopian food in general, but it was definitely not for me.
Since, I grew up in a mom and pops restaurant the feel and environment of Fasika I thought was adorable. Hole-in-the wall restaurants are way more genuine and enjoyable than chains.
I think for Valentine's Day they had some alcohol specials with some Ethiopian wines. Unfortunately, they no longer had any of those wines available much to my disappointment as I tried to order the sweet red wine.
My friend's boyfriend who has been there before and loves the cuisine ordered the Tibs, which I had been eyeing. My friend also ordered the tibs but the chicken version which came with rice. To change it up a bit, I ordered the kitfo.
It's always a little difficult to be more adventurous when you are with people who aren't willing to share food, fortunately my friends were as I was not a big fan of my kitfo or any of their dishes to be completely honest.
The kitfo as described on the menu is very lean beef, chopped and warmed in spiced butter, rare or medium, cooked with mitmita, served with cottage cheese and selata on Ethiopian injera (flat bread). Or in my words ground meat in some red sour stuff on top of a spongy and sour crepe. The cottage cheese and selata (salad) were decent though.
It just wasn't for me. Everything just tasted sour and not very flavorful. I was sure to try the Tibs as well to make sure that I just didn't get a bad dish. If you are curious about Ethiopian cuisine the tibs is definitely the best dish to go with. It's like a stir fry but not as flavorful. Also, I didn't like how the meat was cooked. I thought it was a bit on the dry and chewy side especially for beef being cooked medium.
Sorry for the lack of the visuals, but we/I was starving and jumped in right away.
Have you had Ethiopian cuisine? Are you a fan? What do you suggestion? Any other restaurant suggestions?
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