I?m an American. To further complicate matters, I am a biracial American. Americans don?t really have a type of cuisine, like Italians or the French. America is basically a giant conglomeration of a bunch of different cultures, and some of those cultures, the unlucky ones at least, end up having their cuisine westernized and turned into fast food restaurants a la Taco Bell. Being biracial and an American, I don?t see myself as having one specific ethnic cuisine that is traditional. I like it all. In class, we read an essay that spoke about ethnic cuisines, and how they are often the last thing a person holds on to before completely assimilating themselves into a new culture. It makes them feel at home, and brings back memories of good times past. There are many cuisines that make me feel like I am at back at home in Chicago. Mexican is one of them. Australia seems to have a severe lack of Mexican restaurants and food, and the little they do have is so westernized, I don?t even want to eat it. So when I found a package of corn tortillas at Woolworths the other day, I damn near had a food orgasm. And while there are many ethnic cuisines close to my heart, Indian cuisine included, perhaps the one that truly gives me the warm fuzzies is Ethiopian food. I discovered it less than a year ago at a restaurant in Chicago, with an adventurous friend and fellow food lover insisted on showing me what good food really was (Thanks, Todd!). I ended up moving into a neighborhood because it had three Ethiopian restaurants in it, I loved it that much. So you can only imagine how I felt when I arrived at the Adelaide African Festival this past Saturday and saw not one, but THREE booths serving Ethiopian food. I felt excited, dizzy, hungry, but most importantly, I felt like I was home. Here is Adam, deliriously happy by the booths.
My partner and I indulged in a plate full of spicy yemsir watt (red lentils) and dinich alicha (carrots and potatoes) a top of fluffy and tangy injera bread. The only sad part was when we went back for seconds (we shared the first plate) and all the booths were closed! Such a mouth tease!
This is an African rapper dressed from head to toe in hop hop wear. It was interesting to see the different people there…some had on traditional and colorful African clothes, and the rest wore American hip hop clothing!
It was all held at the Adelaide Festival Center, and there was a pretty lake running behind it. Here we are enjoying the fact that we were not covering in snow like our Chicago compadres.
It is amazing how I have been living in this city for three weeks (although it feels like three months!) and how many different things I have eaten. Nothing made me feel like this food did. For some people, home is where their family is, or the town they grew up in. Home is where they have built a solid base of friends or where they work. For me, home is where the food is, the food that has put so many good memories in my mind and my belly. Once I realized even Adelaide has Ethiopian restaurants, I accepted that for the time being, home could be Adelaide. Me, at home, belly half full of Ethiopian.
~LTG
