White Threads

Yesterday a friend (who the girls have adopted as an additional great aunt, and I think they run her fan club) took us out to lunch at the Addis Ababa Sheraton. This is the TOP hotel in Ethiopia, and probably one of the top hotels in Africa.

It is a mammoth complex, with a large resort-style swimming pool, lush gardens, many many fountains, plush high-rise accommodation, villa accommodation for those who can afford squillions per night, and many different restaurants. As a treat, we went to the cheapest of the restaurants.

It was quite lovely, and all three adults decided to have something we’ve been craving – chicken! We’ve only had chicken once while we’ve been here, and I really miss it.

So we all had chicken fajitas, and they were great. The girls had fish and chips or chicken nuggets and chips (and these were pieces of real chicken deep fried in batter, not the usual disgusting crumbed chicken conglomerate muck).

After lunch, despite light rain, the girls enjoyed playing in the children’s playground for some time. It was the first playground – apart from at school – that they have played in since we have been here. (Well, actually they may have played in others, but I got only about 2 hours sleep last night due to a family member throwing up periodically, so I’m possibly not entirely coherent this morning…)

It was completely incongruous being at the Sheraton. The foyer was SO plush. The whole complex was quite amazing. And this is smack bang in the middle of poverty all around. People live in corrugated iron, cardboard and tarpaulin “houses” on either side.

Really, it was quite obscene that a place so opulent exists in these surroundings. We enjoyed our lunch, and enjoyed the western experience, but it was all a bit odd, and slightly troubling.

Particularly the staff wearing pith helmets… and the red phoneboxes in the car park….

I thought you might like to know about the food here. A pretty everyday part of life, but food here is quite a different situation to home! Ethiopian food is quite delicious, with many spices, lots of meat, and injera – a fermented pancake made from the Ethiopian staple grain, tef. My husband and I like to eat Ethiopian food, but the girls aren’t so very keen on it.

No matter, there was an Italian occupation here many years ago, fortuitously leaving behind an additional culture of Italian foods such as pizza and pasta. So the girls can always find something they like to eat on menus! Local food is very inexpensive, and despite the lack of vegetables within many dishes, it is very nutritious due to the tef, which is rich in many vitamins and minerals.

For home cooking, there are fresh fruit and vegie stalls everywhere. They don’t sell a great range, with the most common things available being red onions, tomatoes, potatoes, oranges, beans, carrots, mangoes, pineapples, and green leafy vegetables. All fresh produce must be bleached before use – this is because crops are not always watered with what our stomachs would find safe.

We are advised not to eat green leafy vegetables at all, as they are too difficult to completely and properly clean. Potatoes and carrots and the like must be scrubbed and bleached. But despite all the bleach, with a good rinse in drinking-quality water, the taste is just fine!

Meat is interesting. Many streets have butchers. These consist of small shops open to the street with a big open window, with carcasses hanging in the open air. The butchers can be identified as either Christian or Muslim by the signs on their shopfronts, so if you want halal, you can get it. We have not felt up to the challenge of buying our meat from one of these stalls, so we buy ours from local supermarkets.

Mince is the cheapest (and least chewy) meat, so on the advice of our friend already here we stocked up on mince recipes to use before we came! We have also eaten chicken, which come whole. You can buy local chickens or ferenji (foreigner) chicken. Local chickens are much smaller, and come with their full complement of bits inside them, so are not for the faint at heart. We purchased a ferenji chicken.

Fortunately our girls like pulses, so we have lentils or beans usually one or two nights per week. I find preparing beans to be useful when I don’t have the chance to go to the supermarket to get meat. Tonight I made chickpea felafel for the first time, and it was voted a success by all of us.

There is a supermarket nearby here, called Bambis, which has the reputation that you can get anything there, at a price (the Ethiopian equivalent of Harrods??!). It is small, but packed. Think local tiny local supermarket and you’re on the right track. It is within walking distance from our place, so I frequent it. We have been very fortunate to have a good supply of soy milk from there (two of us are dairy-free).

These small, jam-packed supermarkets are the sorts of places that you get western breakfast cereal from. There is a bit of a network amongst the school staff, letting others know which supermarkets have which breakfast cereals that week. Rice bubbles (and their equivalents in other brands) have been scarce, but it seems a new shipment has just arrived, with several shops having them now.

When we first arrived it seemed like you could have any breakfast cereal you liked, as long as it was cornflakes. We recently found out that one of the supermarkets had Weetabix, so asked someone to pick some up for us. They ended up costing about $5 for a box of 12. That’s a weekend treat breakfast only!

Other treats that we have purchased at great cost to the management include chorizos ($11 for one long one), salada-type biscuits, watermelon (very seeded!), grapes (very sour!) and white grape juice.