Major Restaurant East African authentic food

Tonight our wonderful friends Stacey and Tommy watched the girls while we went to a local Ethiopian restaurant! Above are a few pictures. We forgot our camera so they are cell phone pictures. Sort of blurry.

When we first walked in there were some children playing and the owner and family were sitting down socializing. When I looked at the children they reminded me of the pictures of all of the Ethiopian kids that I have seen. They are so beautiful! Me being emotional I started crying. I have this emotional attachment with our child and this experience brought me closer to him or her.

The people at the restaurant were amazing! The food was different, which we imagined it would be. I will have to admit I wasn't too fond of the taste. Adam seemed to like it more than I did. We ordered Y-beg Watt which is lamb stewed with spicy sauce then flavored with onions, garlic and ginger root. Adam mostly ate that and I had a few bites. The thought of lamb sorta grosses me out! We also ordered Dora Alcha Watt. It is a Drum stick marinated in lemon then stewed in a mild sauce of onion, garlic, ginger, green peppers and rosemary. It sorta tasted like stuffing. The injera (bread for dipping) was a spongy pancake like bread used for scooping the Watt and bean, veggies and lentils. It was all served on this massive plate and sat on a small wicker table. It wasn't bad at all and actually Adam is taking the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. The lady that made our food was very nice in explaining how to eat it. It was sorta weird dipping into the Watt with the Injera. After we were done eating she made us some coffee or Buna. It was roasted beans and ground right there and served in a clay pot we also had incense. The coffee was thicker and stronger than what we are use to but with a lot of sugar it was really good. She served it with popcorn. And she gave us the coffee for free! We like free stuff!

We were there for about 3 hours! It was very slow paced. The ladies there were all about telling us about Ethiopian dance, culture, food, and language. I felt this connection with them and didn't want to leave. I think it was because I came as close as I have so far with Ethiopian culture.

The owners sister was dancing for us and put on a couple of DVDs of Ethiopian dance and music. Adam was even up trying to learn how to dance! He said he felt like he looked like a chicken. He kinda did, but did a great job!

We cannot wait to learn more about the culture and we plan on visiting the restaurant often. Next time we are going to bring the girls, but we will probably have to bring taco bell for them to eat!

The night was amazing! It was very eye opening to experience this. We are so excited for this child and to learn about the culture.

It is hard not being able to carry this child in my belly, but we plan on experiencing as much of the culture as we can to help us to feel close even being so far away.