Ethiopian Emersion

Injerna [engerna] - a yeast-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture.  This is a staple in all Ethiopian meals. This blog starts in my journey to get Injerna.

 I am a white girl (thru and thru) who loves Africa and will one day be a mother to a child from this amazing country. My hopes are my family will learn about our future Child's rich culture and heritage. So after an awesome weekend with my bestie Ashlee, I am on a mission to find an Ethiopian restaurant named Meskerem. As many of my friends know, I am horrible at directions…in fact this may be one of the many reasons that I married my husband since he has a degree in cartography (map making). So I drop Ashlee off at the airport and I have some great directions that are written on a scratch piece of paper to South Grand Boulevard in St. Louis. Im thinking “I so got this” and I drive off on I-270.

 After about a 25 minute drive on the interstate and  two u-turns later I find my exit. I hop off the interstate and--Uh oh- detour- Grand street is closed. This. Is. Not. Good! I keep driving and driving on this goofy detour that takes me all over industrial St. Louis until I realize, I am nowhere near the road I need to be on. I am NOT giving up so I continue on (about 15 more minutes) weaving and backtracking until I find a way to get back onto Grand.  In my mind I am proving how my passion for finding this restaurant is somehow tied to the ability I will have to raise a child from Ethiopia.

After somehow driving into the middle of St. Louis University (and driving three times down the same section of street) I gain my bearings and head south to the restaurant. Finally, I know I am in the right place because each street block has the same burgandy store fronts and each section is a different country (after a mere 45 minute drive). I am so excited by this point I pull into a parking space and almost forget to put money in the meter. All I have is 10cents…dang that coin savings jar at home!  So with the meter tracking I am on the hunt, I run across the street almost getting ran over by cars  because somehow in my euphoric Ethiopian emersion I forgot there were people and cars around me.  I am huffing by the time I get in the restaurant.  I walk in and immediately feel at home and soak up the smells and the music in this small narrow empty dinning area with Ethiopian artwork on the walls.

I nervously walk up to the lady (obviously the store owner) and in my best – Hi Im white suburbia and I’m adoption a child from your country so please accept me- smile I say “My I have some ingernah” and she says “You mean Injerna [pronounced engerna]?”  Dang it! Flunked my Ethiopian Culture 101 already... take back my home study and deny the dossier! I think I almost started crying I was so hyped about how suave I was going to be and then I started just blubbering and we go through an awkward exchange of how much I want and what Im going to cook with it. I am mortified beacuse I don't know a sing dish except dora wat so I blurt that out thinking immediatly how I should have taken some cooking class or at least bought a book before trying to buy Ethiopian bread.  Of course I have no idea because my amazing friend Erin Jay is going to cook with it so I stumble my way through it asking for some berbere (an Ethiopian spice) and barely make it out without breaking down in my usual awkward laugh/cry and spill something. But then I realize, this is my first experience with our child’s heritage…for a moment I had a glimpse into his world of food and music and language.

You may wonder how our dinner turned out? Well, last night we had the amazing opportunity to eat with the Jay Family. Erin made Shiro Wat- a tomato and berbere stew and Miser Wat- a spicy red lentil stew, at least I think thats what she made honestly I had to google that too!  I am so thankful that God has given us this opportunity to meet this amazing family and share our adoption journey with them! And yes, Erin makes so great Ethiopian Food. We watched a great movie too, but that is a blog for another day :)   Below are some  pictures of our food and guests.