The idea of eating an entire meal without utensils maybe enticing to some, while disgusting to others. If you happen to fall into the first category, Shalom’s Ethiopian Restaurant and Coffee House is your place to be.
The owner, Ethiopian native Firew Hordofa, acquired the business about a year ago. After living in the US for 14 years and acquiring an education in business and management, Hordofa added a few tweaks of his own to the menu in hopes of drawing more Sioux Falls residents to try the exotic finger food.With a small dirt parking lot situated behind a dark, looming house, the coffee house is easy to pass as you zoom down east 10th street. Serving food eaten with your hands and a thin flatbread called injera, the cuisine doesn’t exactly draw mainstream crowds, either. But for the local Kenyan, Sudanese, and Ethiopian residents, it’s a taste of home. A taste unlike anything Americans are used to.
Ethiopian food, much like Indian food, relies heavily on several different spices like ginger, garlic, and chili powder; and is served most frequently in stew form. It’s generally served in spoonfuls on injera, a type of sourdough flat bread that serves as the utensils as well as an important part of the meal. The bread is thin, spongy, sticky and easy to tear. To the untrained, it may seem more difficult than worthwhile, but it certainly cuts down on the amount of dirty dishes.
According to Hordofa, two of the most popular dishes at his restaurant are tibs and kitfo. Tibs refers a type of preparation, where meat and vegetables are sautéed instead of prepared as stew. The meat and veggies can be sautéed with spices and oil, and can be made normally or ‘special’, to show higher respect to someone. Kitfo (or ketfo) refers to a dish made with rare or raw ground beef, cooked in a spicy chili powder. Kitfo offers a complex combination of flavors, while packing a slow-burning punch. It was one of my favorites.
I stopped at the quiet restaurant for a supper date with my friend Andy, who had recently returned from a year in Rwanda. Andy traveled to Ethiopia during his time in Africa, and was excited to revisit food he enjoyed. We decided on a combination platter for two, which had about seven different types of Ethiopian cuisine, served atop a very large piece of injera; and cost us about $18.
I would be lying if I said I knew the names of everything we ate. There was tibs, kitfo, something with cabbage, something with potatoes and carrots, and something with diced peppers and onions. Only two of the dishes contained meat. All of the foods offered very different and distinct flavor, along with a spiciness you won’t find in everyday cuisine. Since everything was consumed with a piece of injera, the spices combined with a slight bitterness to create a very rich and intense flavor. That bitterness was my least favorite part of the meal– the intensity of the flavor got overwhelming after about ten bites. Andy enjoyed it, and said it was nearly as good as the food he had eaten in Ethiopia.
Hordofa says he tries to make the food at the restaurant as close to traditional Ethiopian cuisine as possible, using spices and grains purchased at East African grocery stores around Sioux Falls and sometimes Minneapolis. Each dish usually takes 10-15 minutes to prepare fresh.
Shalom also offers several types of coffee, espresso, and exotic types of beer. Natives of numerous African countries pass through the restaurant, ordering food or just stopping to chat with Hordofa; giving the restaurant a very casual feel. The building itself is a maze of sorts, and the appearance can be a bit off-putting (like the dirty mop bucket tucked into the shabby bathroom), but for those looking for an atypical dining experience, this is right up your alley. Just remember to wash your hands. You’ll be using them.
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RT @thepostsd Ethiopian Restaurant offers flavorful cuisine, sans untensils http://bt.io/EdRi #southdakota
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