Houston, we have a chigger
Meskel is the national flower of Ethiopia and amassay genalo is thank you in Amharic. In Tigrigne, another common language in Ethiopia (I think there are 50 or 60 in all) chigger means problem.
Erica and I visited the local tej (honey wine) house, Torpido Tej, with our guide Birhan and learned that the sister of the owner, Askeret, lives in Seattle. Askeret was very excited about this coincidence and invited us back the following day for a coffee ceremony. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony is very important and we see it being played out all over the place - fields, hotels, family homes. A woman wearing traditional clothes first stokes a small fire of hot embers. Green coffee beans are placed on a metal tray and washed several times with water. That accomplished, the tray is placed over the embers and we hear the crack and sizzle of the beans being roasted. Around this time, a basket of popcorn, cooked in oil and sprinkled with salt is brought out for us to munch. Once the beans are roasted, the metal tray and smoking beans are brought before each guest and the smoke is blown into your face twice. Seriously, a heavenly experience. The beans are then ground, then coffee is brewed in a small pot over the embers. Small cups of coffee are passed out and you add sugar and drink the best coffee you've had in your life. Once the first cup is finished, the cups are removed, washed and then filled with the second brew. This is then repeated a third time.
Askaret asked us to bring back a small amount of grain for her sister in Seattle and we were happy to comply. We stopped by Torpido Tej again today following a brutal hike (>1,000 meters elevation gain in the blistering sun while being passed by sixty year old women in bare feet with 50 pounds of grain on their backs) to pick up the grain. We were invited again to coffee ceremony and certainly couldn't say no. As we were sitting in the dark Tej house I noticed a bug on my hand and I asked Erica, my resident bug expert, if it was a flea. We were discussing the matter discreetly as a woman about our age was tending to the roasting coffee beans and Askeret was talking with a friend nearby. Erica leaned over to pick up the flea (it was a flea) and it promptly jumped down the front of her shirt! A giggle came from across the tej house and we looked up to find that the coffee roaster had seen the whole escapade.She promptly translated to Askeret and her friend what had transpired and we all shared a laugh, even though we didn't share a language.
Erica and I visited the local tej (honey wine) house, Torpido Tej, with our guide Birhan and learned that the sister of the owner, Askeret, lives in Seattle. Askeret was very excited about this coincidence and invited us back the following day for a coffee ceremony. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony is very important and we see it being played out all over the place - fields, hotels, family homes. A woman wearing traditional clothes first stokes a small fire of hot embers. Green coffee beans are placed on a metal tray and washed several times with water. That accomplished, the tray is placed over the embers and we hear the crack and sizzle of the beans being roasted. Around this time, a basket of popcorn, cooked in oil and sprinkled with salt is brought out for us to munch. Once the beans are roasted, the metal tray and smoking beans are brought before each guest and the smoke is blown into your face twice. Seriously, a heavenly experience. The beans are then ground, then coffee is brewed in a small pot over the embers. Small cups of coffee are passed out and you add sugar and drink the best coffee you've had in your life. Once the first cup is finished, the cups are removed, washed and then filled with the second brew. This is then repeated a third time.
Askaret asked us to bring back a small amount of grain for her sister in Seattle and we were happy to comply. We stopped by Torpido Tej again today following a brutal hike (>1,000 meters elevation gain in the blistering sun while being passed by sixty year old women in bare feet with 50 pounds of grain on their backs) to pick up the grain. We were invited again to coffee ceremony and certainly couldn't say no. As we were sitting in the dark Tej house I noticed a bug on my hand and I asked Erica, my resident bug expert, if it was a flea. We were discussing the matter discreetly as a woman about our age was tending to the roasting coffee beans and Askeret was talking with a friend nearby. Erica leaned over to pick up the flea (it was a flea) and it promptly jumped down the front of her shirt! A giggle came from across the tej house and we looked up to find that the coffee roaster had seen the whole escapade.She promptly translated to Askeret and her friend what had transpired and we all shared a laugh, even though we didn't share a language.
posted by Imle at 8:22 AM
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