Food

Because Karlita asked:

If you are familiar with Ethiopian restaurants in America you might
think that Ethiopia would be a great place for a vegetarian. Many
ethiopian spots back home (at least in such concentrated vegetarian
capitals such as Berkeley/Oakland) seem to market themselves to the
vegi crowd. However in Ethiopia it is a different story.

While there is a wide variety of vegetarian items endemic to the
traditional food, anyone who can afford it, will eat meat with every
meal. So that means the restaurants are a little meat heavy. The
exception to this is Wednesdays and Fridays which are traditional
Orthodox fasting days. On these days the full range of vegi options
are usually available.

On fasting days, I can go anywhere and get a big plate of assorted
piles of vegetable mush on injera for two or three dollars, and as I
think I've mentioned before, it is far superior to what you'd get
abroad. However on the other five days on the week I am constantly
searching for good places to eat, and I have found quite a few, but it
is not assured that I can eat well on a Tuesday night.

I am not starving. There is almost always shiro, and I like shiro. And
I have great lunches at work everyday that always include vegetable
options. Plus, there are many restaurants around that serve reasonable
facsimiles of western food (I think there is an aphorism: no matter
where you go, there is always pizza. Although one interesting twist on
that, often the vegi-pizza in ethiopia comes sans cheese and I have
had some difficulty communicating that I actually want vegetables AND
cheese.

to be continued..