Ethiopian Food in Toronto: African Palace, Lalibella

I must admit to a long standing kind of addiction to Ethiopian food, first introduced to me probably 20 years ago by Aster Belayneh, owner of Addis Abbaba restaurant. I get a craving for Ethiopian about once every couple of months, a craving fortunately shared by children, whom I first introduced to this cuisine many years ago.

It is typical to eat with the right hand, with no utensils. Each dish ordered is served on a large platter overlapped by injera, the soft, slightly sour (the flavour goes so well with the food) and somewhat airy, thin flat bread made from fermented tiff....more like a large very soft pancake. One rips off a piece of the injera and wraps it around your choice of food to eat.

African Palace

On this plate, Lamb cooked with carrot and potatoes in tumeric sauce; cole slaw; kitfo (raw hand chopped beef with clarified butter and berbere (garlic, ginger, chili, fenugreek, dried basil and salt, all in powder form) seasoning which adds a bit of a bight) with collard greens and as typically sided, with fresh cheese; spinach with carrots, cooked with onions and ginger; split peas with onion, garlic, cumin and tumeric; beef tibs with onion, tomato, peppers and awaze sauce (honey, ginger, berbere spice, olive oil)

I felt that the flavours here were quite wonderful and would definitely return for a repeat performance.

Lalibella

Kitfo (freshly minced, very lean beef, mixed with mitmita (an orange-red powdered seasoning mix that typically contains ground African birdseye chili peppers, cardamom seed, cloves, cumin and salt), butter flavoured with kaseret), fresh cheese, collard greens, salad, berber spice. 

Side bowls, to be added to the injera platter, of collars, cabbage and carrot.

Salad with tripe, jalapeno pepper, green pepper sauce, onion, garlic and ginger with tomato and tongue.