Eating Ethiopia: Injera, Wat, and Everything in Between

Ethiopian food has its own rules: eaten with the right hand on a shared injera platter, built on the sour-spongy flatbread that doubles as plate and utensil, and spiced with berbere — the phenomenal red-chilli blend that is the secret of the cuisine. Messy, communal and glorious.

Injera is fermented teff (or mixed-grain) flatbread. The classic stews are wats — doro (chicken), kitfo (raw beef with butter and chilli), shiro (chickpea) and the fasting-season vegetarian array met during Ethiopian Orthodox fast days. Start with the vegetarian platter; it outshines most meat dishes anyway.

Our trekking kitchens run on the same principles: hot injera, spiced stews and vegetables cooked over the mobile kitchen, plus plenty of fresh fruit on the highlands. The Danakil and other remote camps get a simpler but still full menu — mule transport keeps the kitchen table delivered.

Coffee arrives by ceremony (see our coffee guide). Beyond it: tej, a honey mead with the taste of something older than the empire, tella, the milky home-brewed beer of the highlands, and — in the Rift — fresh fruit juices that taste like the orchard visiting your glass. Step carefully with tej; it is stronger than it tastes.

Orthodox fasting days make many restaurants vegetarian two days a week — a good reason to plan your eating around the calendar rather than against it. Your guide will point the days out and help you order; accommodation half-board in Ethiopia is often a highlight, not a compromise.