Sunday night Sean, Dave, Neale and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant on Rideau street called "The Horn of Africa" and it was yummy! In ethiopia they make these giant pancakes out of "Tef" flour (a grain that grows there which contains symbiotic yeast and loads of nutrients) called "Injera". The Injera is placed on a large serving dish and various stew-like dishes are then poured on top, to eat you simply tear off a piece of the injera and use it to scoop up the stew-stuff. We ordered a meat platter for 2 ($18) and a veggie for two ($14) and were stuffed by the end. Everyone agreed the veggie platter was best since the meat was kinda gross on the other one.
I love communal eating like that, especially when you use your hands, nothing beats it. The experience is great because it brings people together (especially first timers) through a common experience. One of the main reasons everyone watches so much TV is in order to have a common link to others, something to talk about, some way of staying connected. Communal eating does this on a smaller scale at the dinner table.
My restaurant will have to include this in some manner, perhaps we'll have a regular menu with "family specials" where 4 people get a set menu with a bunch of great treats to share. Of course the price will drop the bigger your "family". This would attract larger groups which are much more efficient to serve than singles or doubles. A "family" combo might include a pitcher of beverage, an appetizer and an entree consisting of a starch, main, veg and salad. For desert, a whole pie. I'd charge maybe $12 each for such a meal. The price has to be low on something like this because you're forcing everyone to eat the same thing.
Let's just hope this type of "family" meal won't degrade into one of my typical family meals...
"Pass the corn"
"fuck you"
"no, FUCK YOU"
"I wish you were DEAD!"
*followed by crying/fighting/smashing/stabbing*
You could have giant bowls of spagetti and people could be like "hey that's my strand of spagetti FUCK YOU"
ooh! i tried making injera earlier this year. you make it by fermenting the tef in water (if i remember correctly) and then cooking it on a big pan... i wound up with a huge, sour-smelling bowl of bubbly brown grains sitting in my bedroom for several days because i got super busy and didn't have the time to cook it. i did get around to cooking a bit: tasted terrible, but it at least didn't make me ill (mm home fermentation... so good for the stomach).
Posted by: kyla on June 25, 2002 03:50 PM