It was such a fun day, filled with so many different experiences that it would be impossible to pick a favorite. We had lunch with my brother's family (minus my brother) and found it difficult to leave the cozy and welcoming atmosphere of their home. We visited both Rejuvenation and Hippo Hardware in search of a doorbell. I know Rejuvenation does lovely work and gets a ton of national press, but a visit to Hippo Hardware is an adventure in itself. By late afternoon we found our chilled and slightly damp selves ensconced at the bar of Huber's, warming up with the help of their Spanish coffee. This is something we never, ever do -- hang out at a bar, chatting and bothering the bartender -- but it was just the right thing that afternoon. If you like Spanish coffee (or any combination of coffee and booze) and you haven't been to Huber's, you are missing out.
For dinner, we picked up our friend T and went over to Bete-Lukas where they make absolutely delicious Ethiopian food. We actually met T in Africa about 15 years ago, when he was hired to work on a project with J and some other Habitat folks. He and J later shared an office in Americus, GA and then he moved to Seattle for grad school just before we returned to Oregon. Although, ironically, we don't see each other very often now that he's in Portland, we always enjoy our time together. And if there's Ethiopian food, all the better.
So we ordered our food (kai shiro wat, doro wat, siga wat, and the vegetarian sampler) and a bottle of wine and had a perfectly lovely meal. As we were winding down I took a moment to look up from my food and spotted a familiar face across the room. I hissed, "J, is that David?!" It was indeed David, a friend from our grad school years in Eugene. We had met David when he and his wife started attending our church shortly before we left for Ethiopia. It so happened that David's wife had been raised as a missionary kid in Ethiopia, and she and David had met each other there when both were on short term mission assignments as adults -- they were a great resource for us as we planned and packed for our trip, and we eventually met up with several mutual friends in Addis Abeba. David was in Portland visiting a friend whom he had known in Ethiopia, so of course they had also gone out for Ethiopian food. It was such a nice surprise to see him there.
Yesterday I made firfir from the remains of the injera b'wat we had brought home from the restaurant. Now, we have had firfir before, and it was ...bad. It's a popular breakfast food in Ethiopia but we had only encountered it as part of a wedding meal, served with a side of raw beef. Wedding firfir takes old, sour injera and mixes it up with fatty cubes of cold cooked meat. Ethiopian weddings can take forever, and the prospect of cold, congealed firfir after the ceremony is daunting. Needless to say, I have never been inspired to recreate it at home. But the owner, Ato Petros, convinced me to give it a try.
Bete-Lukas firfir was great. I chopped up the leftovers -- injera soaked with spicy-hot shiro -- and warmed it up in a skillet with some sauteed onion. Here's what it looked like:
You can see the spongy injera in there, along with bits of carrots, cabbage, and green beans. It may not look that appetizing, but it smelled and tasted wonderful.
As with every lovely experience, 11/11/11 eventually came to an end and we are back to our regularly scheduled lives -- but firfir was an unexpected way to bring home the flavors of our special day.
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