Kokeb

Okay, so, I know that the word "pile" isn't exactly appetizing; I'm going to try EXTREMELY hard to make it through this review with using it. Lordy, it's going to be difficult.

For the uninitiated, Ethiopian food presents probably the most exotic dining experience one can have in a restaurant (at least in this honky city*). All the dishes are served on injera, a pancake-like flatbread made with fermented teff flour, which lends it a distinctive tang. Most dishes consist of braises of some sort; these stews are served in dollops directly on the injera bread. To eat, you break off a portion of the bread, and use it to pinch a bite of the stew--no utensils are used.

The exotic nature of the cuisine doesn't end with presentation and manner of consumption; Ethiopian food is spiced in a way that is, well, foreign, in a way that most other ethnic cuisines just aren't. This could be a result of its reliance on niter kibbeh, a spiced clarified butter that forms the base of most dishes. But, really, I have no idea. I've never even come close to attempting Ethiopian at home.

I've been to Masawa on a handful of occasions, Osborne Village's Ethiopian restaurant, but this was my first trip to Kokeb. Masawa definitely delivers the goods, flavour-wise, but the service is unfortunately less than quick. There is even a note on every table which reads "The food takes forever, so you're not allowed to bitch if it takes forever, because it's going to. So shut up." I'm paraphrasing, of course. This could be considered a charming feature of the restaurant, depending on hunger level upon entry.

But, Kokeb: we started with a round of samosas, which spent a minute or two longer in the deep-frier than needed, but the filling was delicious, and the condiment served with it remarkable. A salsa (sort of?) of cilantro and minced green chiles and who knows what else. It was very salty and very spicy and WONDERFUL. If I had a little bowl of it beside me right now, I would eat it by the spoonful. (Maybe not. I wasn't kidding when I said "very spicy".)

There were six of us, so for our main course we ordered two of the dinner for three sample platters--really, the way to go in an Ethiopian restaurant. It came with dark, braised chicken drumsticks, a few hardboiled eggs, piles (fuck) of stewed yellow lentils, brown lentils, spinach, a braised meat that may have been beef, but also possibly goat, an iceberg salad**) with a lovely bright yet reserved simple vinaigrette, and probably much more that I've forgotten. Plenty of food to satisfy three, and easily Massawa's equal as far as flavour is concerned. And served in a timely manner, to boot.

The decor is slightly shabby, but therein lies some of the charm of eating in the Ellice/Sargeant vicinity. Service was friendly, and speedy. After the meal, some of my dinner companions expressed interest in the menu's specialty coffee, but it takes 30 minutes to prepare, so order in advance. It's apparently served with salt and clarified butter, which sounds interesting, but a caffeine sensitivity keeps me from coffee permanently, unfortunately.

All in all--solid Ethiopian for the experienced, a trip off the beaten path of standard restaurant fare for the squares. Not for the faint of heart (faint of stomach? faint of tastebud?), though--bear in mind the adventure tolerance of your dinner companions. Oddly, the bite I'm still thinking about is that vinaigrette. Go figure.


Price tag: $29.99 for the dinner for three.

Website: Why am I even bothering with this?


*I love Winnipeg, don't get me wrong.

**Okay, so for a while I looked down my nose at iceberg lettuce. It's boring, right? Tastes like air. When directly compared to something like arugula, there's no contest. But I can remember an argument I had with a friend about a year ago wherein he defended the humble iceberg, solely on the basis of its single positive attribute: texture. I'm starting to come around.