The place where they like it raw!

Waiting to be eaten for lunch at “Bemneet Restaurant” in Addis Ababa

Touted as refreshing and reinvigorating the Ethiopian raw meat cuisine fascination has been around since the 16th century according to some.

For Amarilis and me it was quite a shock - never having heard of the local practice of downing raw beef in chunks - to walk into a restaurant in downtown Addis Ababa and see respectable businessmen and women tucking in with much relish! And not a bit of it was cooked!

Thankfully our hosts were not insistent we follow the lead of over half the people in the restaurant, so we settled to enjoying (and really enjoying!) a delicious meal of “Nibs” - beef strips, cooked to perfection with onions and peppers and accompanied by Mitmita (a chili paste that tastes exactly like Colman’s mustard!) and injera (a bitter Ethiopian bread made from teff flour).

Just another day in Addis!

Cooked “Nibs” - a true culinary experience!