Reply #4: Sad how poverty causes us to eat better here in a way

[HamdenRice]

Many Ethiopians came here as a result of recurring famines and the terrible, violent dictatorship of the Derg regime of the 70s.

The restaurants at first catered to the immigrant/refugee population. So we get their great cuisine added to our melting pot.

Some of my best friends in the 80s were Ethiopians. What a culture! I was tempted to specialize in it, but unlike South African culture, I was advised it's almost impenetrable unless you grew up in it. My Ethiopian friends told me the language is simply too indirect for most foreigners ever to master.

They told me that in the villages, Ethiopian coffee is occasionally ritually served to the senior men in a form so concentrated and powerful that it is a hallucinogen, and the users go into mystical trances for days without sleeping.

So it's certainly true that the various countries are different, and Ethiopia is as different from everywhere else as they come.