Most societies put much effort teaching the young, who have great deal to
learn if they are to look after themselves, and to carry on the culture.
Based on this fact even on Haddas Eritrea # 71 on may 7\97 title is
"ezi deye bahry eritrawian" Is this character or Behavior of Eritrians
was written about our youn people at home.I recomend everybody to read it is interesting article which it shows
us what to expect from our children.
However my post is not about the article insteadit is about the guy whom I
admire and his tireless effort be in Dehai or his succeess in acadamy. We all
know that it is not too is, from personal experience, for Africans and
what we face in north Amric abecaues of the perception that we can not be
as good as others. Ontheotherhand the respossibility and courage we have
in our mind is not only to be like others but to outstanding them
sometime which based on our culture, values and attitudes as Eritreans.
That is why I admire this guy not only him a lot of them who are out
there be it out of this form. Including women in the dispora.
In addition, I admir the guy for his unabated enthusiasm to his customs and
culture ingeneral including his ubiguitous to be everywhere. for e.g look at
his post before a year ago (I am glad to forward you with my post see it
bellow) to show you that he is not only good at Mathematics but also
cooking which is very interesting regardles our traditional myth men
don't enter to kechin.
Ghidewon A. Asmerom the man I admire made a difference to most of us not
only men can enter to kechin but also they can enjoy it too, if there is
the well there is away.Isn't it?
Ghidewon, let you know that I am proude of you.Since your against a
religion discussion in Dehai, at least for today, I would love not to
violate your wishes. therefore, there is no quotation from religion post.
HaftKa
Haregu.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 96 23:43:35 EST
From: Ghidewon A. Asmerom <gasmerom@cabell.vcu.edu>
To: dehay <dehai@thames.stanford.edu>
Subject: Eritrean Cuisine Short of Variety???
selam Aman:
> Let me take this opportunity to raise questions about our feeding habits
> and food:
>
> 1. Is it true the perception that Eritrean cuisine is poor in terms
> of variety when compared to the Ethiopian and Sudanese ones?
As you might guess, I don't think the above statement is
true at all. Preception, may be, just like those who believe
Tigrigna is not a romantic language, but in reality that doesn't seem
to be the case.
I don't have much knoweldge of the variety of cuisine in the Sudan
but I bet we have at least as much variety as that in semetic
speaking Ethiopia. My knowledge of Ethiopia is limited, but from the
limited exposure I had and specially as a vegetarian, central Ethiopia would
be the last place I want to live as far as food variety is concerned. I am
neither a nutritionist nor a good cook and thus can not really make much
comparison but I have to say the variety of Eritrean cuisin is not small
either. The problem seems it comes on qrChat and seteta not plates, is eaten
by palin hands not forks and spoons.
The sad reality is also to enjoy variety of Eritrean food, first I guess
one has to be poor and vegetarian; the rich like to eat meat all
the time. Second, to talk about real Eritrean cuisine you have to go
outside Asmara into the real part of the country. As much as I love
Asmara, the jewel of our country and the place of my birth (Gejeret Abi), I
am sorry, I have to say, just like the language spoken there, much of what one
encounters in Asmara ain't 100% Eritrean.
Leaving the recipe alone, let's indulge for the moment on how much
variety we have in Eritrea. For a much broader detail I refer people
to read the book "NQedem Belu" by tegadalay aba Yisaaq Gebre'iyesus.
I know the discussion is on cuisine and types of bread might not be
part of it; I don't know. Do they? In any case, to really understand
much of Eritrea's cuisine and specially highland ones you need to take
the bread that go with it into consideration. Thus, I will start by
mentioning some of the types of bread first and then I will mention SebHi.
Here I will focus on the highland cuisine only. As a result I will use a
lot of Tigrigna words as they are.
Kinds of enjera(*).
==================
[ (*) As we discussed it in Dehai some time back, I am against the use of
the term enjera in place of Tayta when one is speaking Tigrigna. The use
of enjera for Tayta is a direct legacy of Amharic and it is time we
get rid of it. Colonialism is five years since it died but this word
hasn't died yet. enjera in Tigrigna is a generic term and hence
shouldn't lose its broad meaning.]
Tayta
=====
Though the common type of this comes from the white or red Taff,
the mixed variety, commonly called "sergien" is also common.
Tayta is also made from meshela (sorghum) and Efun (maize).
The only drawback with these latter two is that they require a lot of work at
the "mSiSay" and "mlinQaT" stages. mSiSay is the stage when the
grain is cracked and mlinQat is the process were the cracked and
soaked grain is ground to give a paste. Despite the hard work that is
involved in making them they are the most widely used sources of
Tayta in the western lowlands of the Tigrigna speaking people. There is
also the sour Tayta that is made out of barley or wheat. This is
called "Tayta-shbll". One will take time to get used to this type of
Tyta for unlike Tayta-meshela it has a sour taste. The scarcity of Taff
and drought, including life here in the diaspora has taught many of us
to be as innovative in making Tayta as we can. These days, Tayta is being
made from different proportions of all grains, even rice. This Tayta is
what I like to call "Tayta kuneley-kuneley". Care must be taken
before inviting foreigners and giving them this "Tayta kuneley-kuneleu"
as an Eritrean Tayta. At least take time to explain to them this is an
artificial Tayta. Otherwise, the authentic Tayta welesh at home
might be regarded as bad as the one we have to put up with here.
hanza
=====
hanza is nothing but two Taytas baked with red pepper powder
sprinkled in the middle. The best hanza is that of meshela and it is
a good outdoors food. I could see this making a nice meal if the pepper
could be replaced with some sort of SebHi, specially tumtmo (lentil stew) in
the middle.
qCha
====
This was the common breakfast bread most of us had growing up. There
are variations of preparing it. One is plain qCha, the unleavened
flat bread. The second one is qCha bkuO, the leavened one. Both of them
in turn can be baked either on moQlo (a big flat metal pan), or mogogo
(a clay oven). Personally, I liked the plain qCha mogogo. But qCha
bkuO is also something I would give anything to get my hands on these days.
Like Tayta, qCha can be made from different cereals as well. The most common
ones are made from HanfeS (Wheat + barley or commonly called SaEda eKli). But
again depending on what you can afford, you can have either qCha dagusha
(millet), or qCha Ater (garbanzo). The latter is the most desirable qCha.
qCha Ater is what you will provide for your esteemed guests.
Culturaly it ranks as high as SebHi dorho (Chicken stew) on a table. qCha
meshela, depending on which variety of meshela you have, can vary from a
delicious qCha to some not so good. For example during our struggle, all
what our fighters could afford was qCha wedi-Aker, the cheapest variety of
sorghum and that wasn't the best kind of meal. The best qCha meshela
is one that is eaten fresh out of the oven. Plain qCha Efun (maize)
is a pain for the throat. But when it is mixed with some other grains like
wheat is turns out to be quite good. There is also a qCha-lnqaTo
version that makes both sorghum and maize qChas delicious.
gogo
===
This is a version of qCha that is specially prepared out of freshly harvested
barley. It was common to hear people brag about bullet proof gogo.
It is good.
Hmbasha
=======
This bread is the most common breakfast bread during festive
seasons. It is the kind of bread a bride takes with her to and from
her home and in-laws. It is made from wheat. Hmbasha sure makes a w
holesome breakfast with honey. There are some who call Hmbasha as
gogo, but that mixing of the names is rare.
Now to the dishes or SebHi. The common highland practice is that SebHi is
eaten along with one or more combinations of the above breads.
Vegetable (Hamli) dishes:-
=========================
There are so many types of vegetable dishes that it suffices to
mention only some of them here. Hamli gidiebelu : Hamli brnhayo : Hamli adri :
Hamli ChaQuit : Hamli gerezemay : SebHi qanTsha (Aynlam or agule) are
among the most common rainy season cuisines. Their preparation is almost
identical, but they all give different dishes. Powdered flax
is sprinkled over most of these dishes.
Personally, my favorite is Hamli ChaqWit, if not Hamli adri is next.
Unfortunately, eating Hamli is associated with poverty and the "rich" and
those with appetite for meat might not appreciate them, but these
vegetables are good sources of traditional vegetable dishes. As for
the vegetables, I don't see any reason why we can not grow them by irrigation
and make them perennial instead of seasonal vegetables.
One dish that comes along with these is sebHi duba (pumpkin). Those
who are in the US can enjoy SebHi duba on the fall as this vegatable
is abundant in October. Another dish of duba is boiling it in milk and adding
some flour. It makes a nice dish. This a common dish in south western
Eritrea. I think one can add SebHi dnsh (potato) and SebHi qoSTa as
well in this category. They are much younger SebHis. I don't think
they have stayed with us more than a century. Does any one know when
potato was imported into Eritrea?
Legume dishes
=============
Here come tmtmo and shiro. The most common shiro is made out of Ater
(garabanzo beans), but Ayni-Ater ( chick-pea) and sebere's shiros are
also getting common. Shrio, depending on how many spices you add to it
and what you make it out of, can be a favorite cuisine. Shiro + Tsmi
is the best dish you can have and it is full of plant protein.
tmtmo is usually made out of brsn (lentil), but my favorite is that of
baldengWa (fava beans) and brsn. However, there are also some people who
make tmtmo out of chick-pea.
Hlbet is another product of baldengWa + brsn that is common during the lent
season. It takes a lot of work but it is a good source of protein
as well. It is very light and delcious.
smbr-Asa is a dish that takes not a whole lot of work. It is
garabanzo cubes cooked in a zigni style stew.
The problem with our SebHis is that we don't eat them by themselves.
Check Indian cuisine for example; they are nothing more than our SebHi
eaten with a spoon. This is why an Eritrean elderly man said the same
one time when he was taken to eat and Indian food. In his words "heTub! SebHi
bmanka nesiOmnas genzeb?) (It is amazing! Are they going to take money after
leting us eat SebHi with a spoon?) We were told not to eat plain SebHi from
childhood, but believe me there is nothing delicious than spooning shiro
or tmtmo. Try it and you will love it.
ftft
====
This is scrambled qCha or Tayta. But the ones I want to look at here are
those from qCha. qCha ftft can be made from Tesmi (butter), enTaTiE (flax),
braH (butter milk) or rg'o (yogurt). If it is ftft with Tesmi, my favorite
is qCha dagusha. It is good. If you haven't tasted ftft qCha dagusha, you
haven't tasted anything. I rather have dagusha for ftft than for
swa, though swa is also a wonderful drink. Normally Qcha dagusha has
problems of constipation but when you take it with butter, there is no
problem at all. In addition, doctors tell us to eat a lot of roughage,
unless it is my ignorance, I don't think there is more fiber anywhere else
than in dagusha and all our Hamlis. If it is with braH I prefer qCha
sgem (barley). If it is enTaTiE it has to be qCha from wheat or
barley.
In addition to these, we have sljo, azo, and awaze for appetizers.
In my opinion, sljo (Pepper + fava beans flour + sunflower + garlic ...)
and azo (barley flour + milk + garlic + pepper + mustard + ...) have
a lot of nutritional values. Awaze is also wonderful, but I will
pass on it. I can not afford to have a spinning head. :-)
geAt
====
Hey friends, what is Eritrean cuisine without mentioning geAt. In East Africa
it is ugali and it was made from corn-meal, in west Africa it is
fufu and it made from cassava or millet, (In Kalamazoo, MI, it was
called Bronco, after the mascot of WMU and was made out of wheat
flour and some potato flakes.) But in highland Eritrea it is geAt.
The best geAt is that of barley, but sorghum, and millet are also
wonderful. geAt doesn't have to be eaten with yogurt and butter only.
The enTaTiE-Humer option is what I recommend best for vegetarians.
If you are not vegan, try yogurt with enTaTiE; you would love it.
THlo, THni (beso)
=================
I remember Paulos Natnael writing on THlo last year for Dehai and he was
detailing for us the way THlo is made. It is made out of THni which
in turn is made out of barely. The differece is plain THni or beso, needs
you only water and you are done, but for THlo you need to prepare special
zgni the way you prepare for Hlbet. THni is a good breakfast dish
while THlo makes a good lunch or supper meal.
Hsho:-
====
This food usually associated with Taff harvesting (actually threshing) can
also be made easily. All what you need is a soft qCha Taff and
powdered roasted enTaTiE. Roll the qCha on the enTaTiE and there you
have Hsho for your hearts desire.
Finally, I am no big fun of meat and thus don't expect me to speak
much of meat dishes, but for those who say there is no variety in Eritrean
cuisine I have to ask what about Hmto, gEzm, qebat webharm, zgni, SebHi dorho,
qlwa(**)?
[(**) While at it, let me mention another Amharic based ear-irritating word
you hear in Eritrean restaurants in the DC area. This word is Tbsi. The way
I understand it, Tbsi is being used for the word qlwa. The Tigrigna Tbsi is
equivalent to what here in America call barbecue, except there is no
sauce with our Tbsi. If something is going to go through the mTbas process
it has to be exposed to an open flame like Tbus Efun. Qlwa traditionally
is something you roast (cook) on moQulo. Hence qlwa sga is the name of
what I see served as Tbsi.]
> 2. Would it be right to characterize the highland people of Eritrea
> conservative in their culinary taste and feeding habits? In other
> words, they prefer to eat what their parents ate and avoid experimenting
> new varieties of food. Take for example bamia (Okra) which is common
> in Sudan and the Eritrean lowlands. Few eat bamia in the highlands of
> Eritrea.
I don't think the avoidance of eating bamia is conservativism at
all; it could be because it doesn't grow widely in the highlands. Otherwise,
you will see a lot of highland Eritreans who tasted it in the lowlands or
the Sudan going crazy over it. However, as Matheos and Semere said
it, you have to take into account the religious value of a society.
You can not experiement with something you don't know about its
cleaness. For the majority of Moslems and Orthodox Christians, pork (Hasema)
is Haram and you don't expect them to change that habit. At the same time
the majority of the Levetically unclean sea foods are going to take
some time before they gain acceptance in the population.
> 3. Apart from iron, what other nutritional value is there in eating
> injera? The cultural significance is pretty obvious.
I don't know about the other nutritional values other than iron but
the white variety might have starch as well. Here I am using the red Taff
variety as a breakfast cereal, yes you read it right,as breakfast
cereal. I boil it and add raisins and milk to it. It has a wonderful taste.
Except it sounds insane when you tell an Eritrean you are eating TTqo
(boiled) Taff.
> 4. Would be right to assume that the introduction of Italian cuisine
> (pasta) in Eritrea has arrested the development of the local cuisine?
I think so.
> Cheers,
>
> Amanuel Melles
>
-- Ghidewon gasmerom@cabell.vcu.edu