Raw meat?

Jason in Canada asked ‘Is it true they eat raw meat? Is the food different from what you get back home”?

Yes Jason, it is true that eating raw meat is delicacy in Ethiopia and it is common to see people eating slices of beef right in the butcher shop. Referred to as Kitfo, meat is usually marinated in butter and berbere (a local spice mixture containing chilli pepper), warmed slightly but served raw with injera. In the past raw meat was heavily seasoned for preservation on long expeditions throughout the country, but rarely done so now. Aside from kitfo, the Ethiopian cuisine is quite diverse and full of many flavours and textures. 

As previously mentioned, injera is a staple of the Ethiopia diet: it is served on a two-foot diameter plate a variety of stews (wot) are served on top and guests use the injera to scoop sauces, vegetables and wot of their choice. The wot is cooked with a variety of meats, including chicken (ye beg wot), mutton (ye beg wot), and beef (ye bere sega). Fried meat (tibs) is commonly served on the side as well as other dishes including, cottage cheese and other vegetables.

The majority of the population is of the Orthodox religion and as such they fast on Wednesday and Fridays. Most of the population will also practice longer fasts during lent (56 days), Advent (40 days), and Kweskwam (40 days). In fact, fasting can occur for up to 250 days a year – though the concept of fasting simply implies abstaining from meat and dairy products (as opposed to Muslims during Ramadan who abstain from food and drink during daylight hours). During these fasts, lentil stew (misr wot) and chickpea stew (shiro wot) as well as fish dishes are mainstays of the Ethiopian Orthodox diet. Of course when the fasts are broken there is a large consumption of meat, a return to a carnivorous diet. 

Aside from the Ethiopian cuisine which is found in restaurants throughout the city, the food options are actually quite varied to fit nearly any mood. Pizza and pasta are very popular and there are many Italian restaurants scattered throughout, a throwback to the brief Italian occupation in the 1940’s. (The pizza is served with this delicious green paste that is made from olive oil and jalapenos, I could put it on everything)  There are many hamburger shacks and it is a common item on many restaurants, however, you need to be careful that it is fully cooked as they like their meat quite rare. Roast chicken is Almost every restaurant offers hamburgers and French fries are served with almost any meal. Roast chicken is a very popular meal, as is tuna salad. There are a number of middle eastern restaurants as well as a handful of Indian and Chinese establishments as well.

On most streets there are small fruit and vegetable stands selling a variety of local produce including: bananas, oranges, grapefruits, pineapple, cpassion fruit, mango, pumpkin, papaya, avocado, green beans, cabbage, carrots, jalapeños(which is called green pepper), red peppers, eggplant, apples (which are imported and very expensive) and chickpeas still on the bush. 

There are also many butchers, bakeries, cafes, samosa and French fry vendors scattered throughout the city. There are many supermarkets that offer a variety of ‘western foods’ but they are much more expensive than what is found locally, of course you can find many conveniences that you would not expect: up to and including an entire frozen salmon and real bacon! (Pork is not allowed for consumption by Orthodox Ethiopians). 

Of course, all of these observations are based on my experiences in Addis Ababa, a very urban city in a country which is otherwise decidedly rural. Ethiopia is very mountainous and the different regions around the country have unique climate and altitudes, the crops grown and thus the diets are quite varied.

I forgot to mention the water – I have yet to drink the tap water, I have repeatedly been warned against it until my immune system has adjusted to the environment. I was made aware of this before I left and I didn’t want to drink bottled water for six months so I went to Mountain Equipment Co-op and bought a chemical purification solution made by Pristine – a Canadian company. It has very useful, I would high recommend it.*

Bon appetite or as they say in Ethiopia ‘good appetite’

The fruit stand guy

The butcher

*If anyone from Pristine or Mountain Equipment Co-op reads this: I am available for endorsement or sponsorship opportunities.

River Pollution

Addis Ababa is a city of rivers, there are many tributaries of the Akaki River that run through the City before feeding into the Awash river and so forth into the lakes of the Rift Valley. The rivers have truly been a blessing for the residents, in fact it was the clean waters and natural hot springs that initially brought attention to the area and before it ultimately became the Capital of the country. Residents used the water for drinking, washing, agricultural purposes and for recreation, but things have since changed.

The hot springs have dried up and the once pristine rivers are now filled with plastic bags and other garbage, the brownish tinge more reminiscent of an open sewer system than a waterway: a fact not lost on those who openly urinate off bridges into the river below. The change has been gradual but cannot be ignored, the main sources of contamination are:

Industrial wastewater
Addis is home to more than 2,000 industries, (including pulp-paper, food, chemical, textile, tanneries, metal works, and mining) the majority of which are located on the banks of rivers and discharge these effluents directly.  According to the Addis Ababa Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) as much as 90% of these industries do not have any kind of treatment plant and discharge their solid, liquid and gaseous wastes untreated into the environment.

Municipal wastewater
More than 24% of households are not connected to the sanitation system, meaning instead of traveling by sewer to a treatment plant it flows through a series of roadside open ditches before emptying directly into the closest river. The city is growing at a rate far in excess to which it can provide services and the number of un-serviced households is ever increasing.

Agriculture
There are many urban agriculture projects within the city, especially along the river banks and these practices are releasing pesticides, fertilizer and livestock manure into the waterways. These run-off nutrients are a major cause of eutrophication of the rivers and lakes downstream, a process by which oxygen is removed from the waterway slowly dies.

In light of these facts, it should come as no surprise that the rivers in Addis are classified to be “badly polluted to very badly polluted” by the Slovak Technical Standard and the World Health Organization (WHO). Tests have shown that levels of cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead and E.coli are all at levels far beyond allowable levels for human consumption.  Fortunately, the majority of the City’s drinking water comes from underground wells and unspoiled aquifer, but local farmers are still using the river water to irrigate crops. 

According to the Addis Ababa Urban Agricultural Office, 60% of the vegetables sold in the city have been irrigated with river water. Furthermore, an EPA study in 1998 showed very high levels of cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc in potatoes grown on these farms. Examples in China have shown a direct correlation between the use of wastewater for irrigation and an increase in liver cancer as pollutants enter the food chain.

I guess that will give me something to think about the next time I am buying groceries...

Municipal waste outlet into the river

A too common scene