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Menu:

INJERA 
Bread of Ethiopia

IAB 
Cottage Cheese and Yogurt

DORO WAT 
Chicken Stew with Hard-Boiled Eggs

SEGA WAT 
Lamb Dices

KITFO 
Tartar Steak

CHEF KURT LINSI'S QUEEN OF SHEBA SALAD 
Spicy Salad

DABO KOLO 
Fried Cookies

VEGETABLE ALECHA 
Vegetable Stew

TEJ 
Honey Wine

TELLA 
Beer

How You Can Present an Ethiopian Dinner

You'll need the largest Teflon skillet you can find and a high round tray, at least fifteen inches in diameter.

It would be impossible to make Injera, the pancake which serves as a "tablecloth," for it is made in Ethiopia with Tef, a flour not available here. The closest substitute devised in our test kitchen is a large buckwheat pancake which does not taste exactly like Injera but is similar in texture and color. (You will like the buckwheat pancake more than the actual Injera.)

Make four or five 9- to 10-inch pancakes as the recipe directs and overlap them on the 15 inch tray to look like a "tablecloth," letting the outer edges overlap the tray. Place the tray on a bridge table or a small round table around which your guests are crowded side by side on bridge chairs or stools. (If you prefer you can use a low coffee table with small stools all around and have two or three of your guests sit on the sofa.) Conduct the hand-washing ceremony as described earlier before you serve the meal.

The tray containing the large pancakes should be covered with aluminum foil. Remove the foil when the tray is placed on the table.

Bring in the bowls of Wat, one at a time. Ladle out right on the Injera one portion of Doro (chicken) Wat and one hard-boiled egg to each guest- then serve the Lamb Wat, the lab (a cottage cheese and yogurt mixture), and the Kitfo until the Injera is covered with individual portions of food. Everyone eats from the tray but has his part of the dinner in front of him.

Keep folding tables handy at easy access to each guest for his beverage- Tella (beer) or just plain carbonated water. If you can find attractive decanters with round bottoms, small enough for one cup, it might be fun to serve the honey wine to each guest in this manner. He would then drink it right from the bottle.

Provide forks for the uninitiated who may give up before they learn to eat in the traditional way. One important warning when using buckwheat Injera; the stews should be thick enough so that they do not soak through the pancake.

When the food and the Injera "tablecloth" are completely consumed, dinner is over.

Coffee in demitasse cups is served right after dinner. Later, much later, you can serve slices of fresh pineapple or melon, and Dabo Kolo, the tiny, fried, snack-like cookies so popular in Ethiopia.

[from http://www.whats4eats.com/4rec_ethiop.html]