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Ethiopian adventure |
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Montreal may be a lot of things to a lot of people, but let’s face it, it just ain’t an Ethiopian town. Having grown up in Washington, D.C., a city that’s got by far and away the largest per capita Ethiopian population in North America—a town that definitely is an Ethiopian town—I took the considerable pleasures of Ethiopia’s cuisine, with its unique spice blends and its communality, for granted. But I’d stopped looking for real Ethiopian cuisine in Montreal long ago, and instead resigned myself to making up for lost time each time I was in D.C. or Toronto. Then I happened to meet a woman, Alga Fessihatsion, at the Souk@SAT sale in December, who was selling her own amazing Eritrean delicacies while she kept an eye on her daughter’s collection of designer fantasy aprons. Inevitably, we got to talking about the commonalities between Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine, and when I asked her where the quality restaurants were in Montreal, she asked me, “Did you ever go to Abyssinia?” “No,” I responded, “Was it good?” “It was the best East African restaurant in Montreal,” she replied. “It was my restaurant.” Fessihatsion had to close her restaurant in order to return to Eritrea some years ago, but she and her daughter agreed that these days, Au Messob d’Or in NDG was the best Ethiopian restaurant going. Au Messob d’Or sits on a nondescript corner of Monkland. Step inside, though, and you’ll find a bright, inviting space heavily festooned with artwork and handicrafts from the homeland. The restaurant’s name refers to the traditional table/stand used to serve Ethiopian platters, a few of which are on show, but only as decorations. Ethiopian food is known for its complex use of spices—its liberal use of everything from ginger to fenugreek, and especially red pepper and cardamom, ranks it the spiciest in sub-Saharan Africa and among the spiciest anywhere. It’s also a cuisine that offers an impressive selection of vegetarian dishes, due mainly to the unusually high number of fasting days (over 200) that make up the Coptic calendar. At Au Messob d’Or, you’ll find several variations on Ethiopia’s two basic types of stews, its wats—which feature red pepper prominently and therefore are hotter and have a reddish hue—and its alitch’as, which have no red pepper. Ethiopian dishes are commonly served on top of a large, circular piece of sourdough bread, ingera (with extra bread for scooping served alongside). While traditionally this bread is made entirely out of tef, a grain native to the Ethiopian highlands, Au Messob d’Or’s version is made with a combination of grains due to the scarcity of tef here, as well as the peculiarities of Montreal’s water (mineral levels etc—nothing dangerous). Our favourite dishes were the spiciest ones, its Yedoro Wat ($13.99), which consisted of a chicken leg simmered in a red berbère sauce, and the Yemesser Wat ($11.99), a piquant lentil dish that is among Ethiopian cuisine’s most emblematic. The biggest surprise of the night was the Michet’abish ($12.99), a juicy stew made with ground beef that had a sweetness to it that we couldn’t place, but which we found irresistible. The gommen ($11.99) is made with spinach instead of kale as it would be traditionally, and it has a pleasant acidity to it that’s reminiscent of the way greens are often prepared in the Mediterranean. Less impressive, however, was the Azifa ($5.99), a lentil salad with green peppers, onions and a lemony vinaigrette, which was dull in colour and taste. Overall, while I enjoyed our meal at Au Messob d’Or, I found the food overly mild, overly conservative, nothing like the pungent and fiery preparations I picked up at Souk@SAT. Whatever you do, don’t miss out on the Ethiopian coffee at this place. Coffee originates from the Abyssinian highlands, and Au Messob d’Or’s mildly spiced coffee service ($6 for three to four), complete with a chunk of burning incense, takes you back to medieval times when coffee was well on its way to conquering the Arabian peninsula, when Ethiopia was still an important way station along the spice route. (To contact Alga Fessihatsion about catering, call (514) 335-2233 or write to her at inshu@yahoo.com)
AU MESSOB D’OR
ADDRESS: 5690 Monkland PHONE: (514) 488-8620 HOURS: Tue–Sun 5–8:30 p.m. BEST FEATURES: Berbère chicken, Ethiopian coffee ALCOHOL: Yes WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Very CREDIT CARDS: Yes PRICE: $25–$30 for two without alcohol Rating: ** 1/2 out of **** |
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