Ethiopian Food Experience

Last night the hubby was jonesing for Ethiopian food. I know what you're thinking... who joneses for Ethiopian food? My husband does and his recollection of it was that it was cool.

We found a nearby (sort of) Ethiopian place - Mesob Ethiopian Restaurant in Montclair, NJ. Lovely ambiance and super nice staff. The wait wasn't long but definitely surprising at 9pm on a Saturday. Turns out the wait was due to a great write up in the NY Times.

Ethiopian food is meant to be eaten with your hands - very old school. You're given a huge platter that has a huge round piece of injera, Ethiopian bread. Your entree choices are then scooped onto the bread. You're then given more injera on the side to tear into small pieces to be used to scoop up your food.

For those of you that don't know me super well - I have a lot of quirks. Eating with my hands is one of them. I'm fine with the normal stuff you eat with your hands - hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. But this was like giving me a platter of taco meat and handing me some soft tacos and wishing me luck. Now if the the injera was irresistible I'd be okay, but it was oddly textured and was tart (almost lemony) so I wanted nothing to do with it. I ended up eating most of my dinner with my fingers like a little kid. The entrees and sides I had were good - mild ground meat in a sauce, portobello mushrooms and cabbage and potatoes.

Then I had a most bizarre bathroom experience. Because my fingers were my utensils I had to wash my hands when I was done. I headed to the ladies room. I had some issues getting the bathroom door to close and lock - but thought I got it and proceeded to wash my hands. Suddenly the door opens and I am faced with a fellow female patron of the restaurant. I ended up having a back and forth with her that went something like this...

Me: Excuse me. I locked the door. (I'm washing my hands)
Her: Well it wasn't locked.
Me: I thought it was locked and as you can see this is one bathroom.
Her: Well do you mind if I wash my hands?
Me: Fine.

She didn't seem to care that she was the "intruder" and wouldn't leave! I need to be more assertive and should have asked her to wait her turn - outside!