Settle in to the cosy dining room at this 14-year-old Ethiopian eatery
Order claypot lamb chops, firfir soup mixed with injera flatbread and more at Ras Dashen in Footscray.
Ethiopian$
After a modest renovation, this 14-year-old Ethiopian stayer has new furniture and artworks but the same warm welcome. Owner Wondimu Alemu recommends the clay tibs: lamb chops with broccoli and cauliflower served on a claypot. There’s plenty for vegetarians, including the warming, sustaining vegie firfir with injera (fermented flatbread) mixed into a stew.
There’s a white version of injera made with rice, white sorghum and wheat flour, and a tan-coloured injera made with brown sorghum and teff, a dark grass-seed native to the Horn of Africa. The flour ratios are everything, giving the Ras Dashen injera its distinctive flavour and colour. The teff one is a little nuttier in flavour; both have the lovely lifted sourness of a fermented batter.
There’s also Ethiopian coffee, made with house-roasted green coffee beans that are ground to order before slowly boiled over the stovetop to a strong, sturdy brew.
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Dani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.