Ethiopia, of saints and scoundrels PART2 04/2011

michnus

22nd July 2011

We spend our days exploring the city eating Injera and drinking St George beer from street restaurants. Its dirt cheap, Injera cost R12-00 (1.2usd) for a meal for 4, Coffee is around R2.5, and the best we have tasted, beers go for around R4-00.(4usd) Injera is the national dish and is a yeast-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture.

You eat it with your hand breaking off pieces and eating it with the variety of stews and salads dished up with on the Injera.

The fucking food is so hot it cooks my brain stem. I’ve located a uranium spill. My nose feels like I have been snorting Jay’s fluid, somebody do the Heimlich manoeuvre, please! Everyone knows the routine by now, get me more beer before I ignite. How in God’s name can people devour food this hot is beyond me?

Martijn, Elsebie and Wibien laugh themselves silly, they eat this nuclear waste as if it’s honey. I will stick to pastries, lovely pancakes and girlie foods that are on offer, thank you very much!

Where they get these machines is a mystery and they are equally competent in fixing them. One interesting drink is called “Sprice”, its half espresso half-strong tea in a small espresso glass with a big scoop of sugar, just stir too your liking.

It is said the biggest market in Africa is in Addis, well we had to go have a look. I cannot vouch for the biggest, big for sure, it is a maze of small alleys and shops tightly stacked next to each other. Anything from dead policemen to Banana plant roots are on display in front of shops.

This is re-cycling city, anything and everything is stripped, cut and broken up to be used or sold again. You can get an axe made from an old car suspension blade for R30. I got a man to make us thick leather straps for our soft luggage on the bike as the ones we had been damaged with all the falls and tumbles.