Leftover fries on injera with a dollop of Lebanese schug… hardly authentic, but delicious.
Is it okay that the best Ethiopian cookbook in English is written by a white, ethical vegan feminist? We’re talking about Teff Love by Kittee Berns which, after exploring multiple sources online, still produces the best results in our ham-handed attempts to replicate the meals we’ve had in Ethiopian restaurants.
A possible answer is this blog post by Sistah Vegan, which came out at the time Teff Love was published in 2015. The author’s beef (our poor choice of words) wasn’t with Berns or the book, but rather the publisher’s promos that the book “demystified” Ethiopian cooking and might make readers who are in fact Ethiopian feel marginalized because they are assumed not to be in the mainstream of American society.
Is it okay that the best Sichuan cookbook is written by Fuchsia Dunlop, an Englishwoman? Can barbecue be racist by perpetuating certain white stereotypes about black pit bosses in the South? Our answers to these questions would be yes, and no. We respect the cultural concerns these questions bring up, but we’re here for the food. We taste something new and different and want to make it in our kitchen, and it doesn’t matter if it’s raw liver from Hawaii or pickled tripe from the Pennsylvania Dutch (not Amish).
Some of our fondest memories from our time in the Bay Area are the Chowhound dinners which featured a mix of non-Asian, Chinese American and native Chinese foodies tasting the very best banquet style meals that were often designed just for us. The chefs were proud of their skills and the ethnic Chinese diners were proud to share part of their culture. This pride comes from sharing something very special that you’ve worked hard to attain. If the anglo diners were appropriating Chinese culture, at least our curiosity was respectful.
As regular readers of this blog will have noticed, we’re currently obsessed with Ethiopian food. We’ve tinkered with a number of the standard recipes you find in almost every U.S. Ethiopian restaurant including tibs, gomen and kitfo, but yearn to know more about the variety available in the mother country. Ethiopia is geographically diverse with deep valleys (including the Rift, home of early human Lucy), mountains and high plateaus and each region has its characteristic crops and foods. We are tempted to just go there and see for ourselves, as did this African-American restaurant owner from the DC area. However, most of the popular restaurants in Addis Ababa, the capital, are Italian according to TripAdvisor; Ethiopia was occupied by Italy before and during World War II though citizens like to point out it was never a “colony”.
Instead of biscuits for breakfast, try butter on injera with honey.
In the meantime, we’ve been tinkering with ways to enjoy non-Ethiopian dishes on injera, and enjoying the sharp sourdough taste and the pleasure of eating your serving utensils. Almost any food that is finely textured (or chopped into small pieces) and has the consistency of a stew is a candidate. A typical Texas BBQ plate of brisket, beans, slaw and potato salad could easily be served on injera instead of a side of white bread. If that’s cultural appropriation, we plead guilty and please pass the Tabasco.
