Eating and Drinking

Most days the pattern is we get up about 7 am. I have a glass of juice and bit of yoghourt.

At 7:30 the driver picks us up and we get to work about 7:50, and head straight to the café on the ground floor for a donut or pastry and a “mercato”, a small espresso with whipped milk which is delicious. Food is ridiculously cheap here, a mercato is less than 20 c.

At lunch time there is a free lunch of injera and a vegetarian curry.

For dinner we sometimes cook, as we have a basic kitchen and some staples, but more often we eat out.

Last night we went to an Italian place, and had a “fasting pizza”. The Ethiopians are keen on fasting, and are currently doing a 60 day fast for Easter. All that seems to mean is that they don’t eat meat. Ethiopia is a great place for vegetarians, as every restaurant offers a meat-free fasting menu. The pizza was nice but odd, basically a pizza crust with grilled vegetables on it. Had a bottle of water and a glass of decent red wine, then for dessert a chocolate cake with café au lait. The bill came to $7!

The restaurant was new and clean, the décor rather bland international with a tiled floor, wooden tables and chairs, nice table cloths. The menu was in Amharic and English. The wait staff were very pleasant and spoke basic English, but sometimes you had to point to menu items as they did not understand our speech.

The night before we took the residents to the Ethiopian restaurant in the Ghion hotel. This is a huge room built like a local Tikul, a circular building with a thatched roof. We ate all we could eat, and each had a couple of drinks. The bill for seven came to $50!

The streets are dirty and crowded, with assorted potholes, and in many place lined with people selling stuff and beggars, but there are lots of nice clean restaurants which are well up to international standards in everything except price.