Merry Ethiopian Christmas
Washington D.C. houses the largest Ethiopian population second to Ethiopia. That means lots of spongy injera (their bread alternative), tibs (lamb stew), doro wat (chicken stew), and tej (honey wine)—the best of which is packed on U Street. “Little Ethiopia,” as I like to call it. Though favorite Ethiopian eateries such as Etete, Dukem, and Madjet are all open today, it’s actually Ganna, or Ethiopian Christmas, according to the lunar calendar.
But they're not frosting snowman sugar cookies or sucking on candy canes. When asked about the yuletide holiday, Hareqwine Messeret, an Ethiopian-born baker at the French bakery Chez Hareg on 9th and U Street, actually decided to improvise Christmas cookies this year. She's got a spicy shell-shaped cookie made with chili pepper, cardamom, and other savory spices usually added to Ethiopian meats. She didn’t want to re-create the indigenous flavors, so she just worked with what she had in the spice cabinet.
The brownish ones shaped like reindeer? Nope, not gingerbread. They’re actually made of barley and have a gummy texture, similar to a Turkish delight. They’re not sweet, or savory really. More wheaty and hearty, similar to seven-grain bread. Hareg also created towers of caramel-drenched, brandy-infused injera, topped with peanuts and chocolate sauce. “Ethiopians don’t usually have sweet tooths, but this holiday season, I just felt like we should," the pioneering Hareg admitted. If you're having holiday withdrawals, celebrate Ethiopian traditions, and un-traditions, today.
Chez Hareg
Address: 1915 9th Street NW, Washington DC 20001
Photograph courtesy of Matthew Worden
About the author: Erin Zimmer, Serious Eats's Washington, D.C., correspondent, is a just-graduated Georgetown gal following her nose about town as Washingtonian magazine's Dining intern and Best Bites blogger. She got her start as the Hoya campus paper's food columnist, and since entering "real person-hood" has ached for her dining hall's omelet station.
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