Tana Ethiopian Restaurant

Thursday, January 23, 2014

A new adventure for me as I have never had Ethiopian food before. After finally locating this small restaurant in a seedy strip mall in Anaheim I was more than surprised with the food. "tanaethio.com"

Fortunately we had a person with us that is quite familiar with Ethiopian dishes so we let her order for us.

We started out with "Sabusa" , a fried pocket of dough filled with either lentils or beef. we had both. Outside was crispy but not oily. Similar to Indian Samosas  I do like Samosas better.

Next was the Vegetarian Special. A large metal platter lined with Injera bread, (made with Teft, Barley, Wheat & Millet). the bread is spongy, flat like a pancake, and has a slight bitter taste to it. It is fermented for 2 days before cooking. The vegetables were in small piles around the outside edge of the platter, You take small pieces of the bread and pick up the food with it. No utensils at all. It had Yemiser Wot, which is a red lentil stew (quite thick), Kik Alicha (yellow split peas), Unsplit Lentil Stew, Gommen (spinach), Shiro Wot (split peas), Shimbera Asa (ground chickpeas in a Berbere sauce), Tomato Salad, Potato & Carrot Wot and Sinegkarya (have no idea). Wot is a sauce made with shallots, red hot peppers or curry, spiced butter with fresh ginger and spices.

We also had an order of Yebeg Tibs, cubes of lamb, sauteed with onion, garlic, tomato and Awaze (spicy sauce). This was dumped into the middle of the platter. Very good and lamb was tender.

Two other side orders "Gored Gored",  which is strips of lean beef, onion and green chiles in a herb seasoned butter. Very good.

And "Doro Wot",  chicken pieces marinated in lemon juice, sauteed in butter, seasoned with garlic, onions and fresh ginger with diced hard boiled eggs. Flavor was excellent but it was just a tad too spicy for me to really enjoy it.

This was an interesting meal and I would go back. Restaurant is small, a little run down but clean. Everything is made to order so it takes awhile to get your food. The owner was very accommodating .

This food would probably be better with beer but we brought wine (no corkage). I brought a 2012 Cuattro Dias , Fess Parker Vineyard, Grenache Blanc which did pair very well with the food. A bottle of 2003 Chateau Ferriera Margux and a 2005 McKeon-Phillips, Ardisons' AD Cabernet Sauvignon rounded out the meal. Excellent wines all around.