There’s a lot to love about the spicy, aromatic wonders of Ethiopian food, and I’ll tell you right now that I love it. But Ethiopian cuisine makes some folks nervous.
Why is that? Here’s why: Walk in to an excellent Ethiopian restaurant like Louisville’s Queen of Sheba without a prior introduction to this ancient East African cuisine, and you’ll see surprising things.
First, everything has an unfamiliar name: What is kik wot? What is atakilt? Who ever heard of fossolia? A covert peek at another diner’s plate won’t reassure you: The entire dish is covered with an odd, thin, brownish substance full of tiny holes, topped with mysterious mounds of colorful stuff that looks as softas a spoonful of mashed potatoes or grits.
And then you realize that people are tearing off bits of that spongy brown stuff and using it to pick up and eat bites with their fingers!
I get the concern, but I’m here to invite you to relax, close your eyes, take a long, deep, relaxing breath, and inhale the delicious aromas of this lovable cuisine.
And here’s the best news for the wary: At Queen of Sheba, you are welcome to have it your way.
The menu explains: “All entrées are served with Injera, a traditional Ethiopian flat sour bread. Traditionally, Ethiopian food is eaten with your fingers by tearing off a piece of Injera and using it to scoop your food.”
But just because you can doesn’t mean you must. Forks are available upon request. You may substitute rice for injera. You can even ask to have your items plated separately.
Not us! We were ready to wield our freshly washed hands and dive in. Injera is an interesting alternative. It’s made with teff, an ancient Ethiopian cereal grain, blended with both wheat and corn flours; and its bubbles and pleasant sourdough tang are the result of healthy fermentation.
Plus, I don’t know about you, but my inner five-year-old loves an opportunity to dig in with my fingers every now and then.
Pricing is reasonable, with a half-dozen appetizers and salads on the lunch menu listed under $5, and about two dozen lunch entrees all priced at $10.95 to $15.50, including four combination plates. Dinner prices are only a dollar or two more.
We took advantage of two combo plates and, even with a couple of duplicated items, were able to sample eight different items. They all come in smallish portions, which is what happens which six goodies on a plate make up one meal.
A tips and vegetable combination ($15.50) features a dish more commonly known as tibs, a gently spicy East African stew of meat, fish or poultry. Queen of Sheba offers a choice of beef, chicken, or lamb, and we chose the lamb option. It was a simple dish, an aromatic mix of mild lamb chunks stewed with chopped onions and green peppers and a subtle whiff of traditional berbere, a complex reddish seasoning that brings citrusy lemon and deep red-pepper flavors to the table.
Its other meat component was alicha sega wot, a combination of beef cubes simmered with finely chopped onion, chunks of tender potato, and, again, a lemon-scented, not-so-spicy hint of berbere and earthy, muaky turmeric.
This dish also included samples of three veggie dishes: Atakilt was a mild mix of cabbage with bits of carrot and onion in a scant tomato sauce. Fossolia featured long-simmered green beans with carrots, onions, tomatoes and Ethiopian spices. Kik wot, which comes with all combination plates, was one of my favorites: Tender red lentils in a garlicky, gingery mix, with onion and just enough berbere to make this the spiciest dish on the plate.
Combo platters also come with extra injera in neat rolls and a small, simple American-style side salad that treated our taste buds with a lovely, lemony citrus-and-oil dressing over crisp and fresh iceberg lettuce and a few tomato dice.
A vegetable combination plate ($11.95) duplicated the atakilt plus the kik wot and salad, and added two more tasty plant-based items: Misir wot, a pretty bright-yellow item, consists of yellow lentils seasoned with onion, garlic and ginger with turmeric and mild spice, making it a hot or not-hot counterpoint with the kik wot.
Dark-green gomen wot wrapped up the combination with fresh collards cooked just to tenderness with potato chunks, onions, ginger, and garlic with mild citrus-scented seasoning.
A satisfying Ethiopian meal came to $35.35, plus an $8.34 tip. I didn't notice until the next day that we had been charged $5.90 for two orders of Ethiopian hot tea that we had not requested and did not receive. Life lesson: Read the tab before paying. I'm not going to go back later to complain about a single-digit error, though.
Queen of Sheba
2804 Taylorsville Road
459-6301
queenofshebalouisville.com
Noise Level:The dining room was almost empty during a lunch hour early during the week, but quiet instrumental music and distant talk at other tables kept the mood pleasant and easy for conversation.
Accessibility:The restaurant appears accessible to wheelchair users, although two entrance doors are fairly heavy.
