An Ethiopian Birthday Dinner at Demera

Last night I went out to dinner with SO and a couple friends. It has become a quasi-tradition that when my Birthday comes around, I get to indulge my Ethiopian food desires. This year, we decided to try out this place called Demera in Uptown.

Photo credit: Demera Ethiopian Restaurant


Besides the fact that it was like, -400 degrees outside and a man who had clearly peed his pants walked in right after we got there to ask to use the restroom, it was great! AND, I was able to eat a vegan meal IN PUBLIC without feeling SUPER awkward.

We first started out with some Ethiopian honey wine, which, thankfully the server had us try before we ordered an entire bottle. That was nasty. The SO made some comment about how the bees who had participated in making that wine must have been pretty angry about something...cough cough, is this thing on?

Anyways, for appetizers we had vegetable sambussas that were like little pastries filled with deliciousness (i.e. lentils, onions, peppers, herbs, etc.). Then we moved on to the main course which is difficult to describe because for 4 people, we ordered like 12 dishes. We ordered 6 vegetarian options and 6 meat options, and my favorite had to be the ye-misir wot because it was spicy and filled with lentils. Also, the quosta (spinach type thing) was pretty excellent as well. They sort of scoop out all of these different kinds of stew and plop them onto this bread type thing called injera. I basically come to get Ethiopian food because of the injera, which is strange because the only way to describe this bread-like thing is to talk about how it feels like skin. Wow, this is now the second time I've come across as a cannibal on this vegan blog that has only been in existence for about 2 days. That's awkward...

Anyways, here's what the whole kit-n-caboodle looks like.

Photo Credit: Google Image Search


All in all, the meal was great. But as I was leaving, I commented to the SO that I really only need to eat Ethiopian once a year. And judging by how my stomach is feeling today, that feeling rings true today as well.

Check out Demera's website here