Ethiopian Cuisine

Ethiopian cuisine centers on injera, a spongy fermented flatbread made from teff flour, served beneath and alongside an array of spiced stews called wat. Diners eat with their right hand, tearing pieces of injera to scoop up the stews rather than using cutlery, and it is common for diners to feed each other a bite as a gesture of respect and affection, a practice called gursha. The spice blend berbere, built around chili, garlic, ginger and a dozen or more other spices, colors and flavors many of the savory dishes. Ethiopian Orthodox Christian fasting calendars, which forbid meat and dairy on many days of the year, shaped a substantial vegetarian repertoire of lentil, chickpea and vegetable wat alongside the meat dishes eaten on non-fasting days. The cuisine is geographically and culturally distinct from the cuisines of West Africa, sharing the continent but very little else in staple grain, spicing or table custom.