MTheobald's Road1

AlpsEthio Modern European Restaurant & Bar

Zilzil TibsYebeg Alecha Fitfitsplit peas37203Zilzil Tibs2

Kariomon32

Alps

London is the cosmopolitan city, where half of its residents were born abroad. There are also lots of Londoners originated from former colonies in African continents such as Nigeria or Ghana, but normally restaurants of their cuisines are only located within their community and are rarely seen in Central London this is one of (many) questions M has of London. Ethiopian restaurants are one of the examples and you can see only some, mainly on the north of Kings Cross station. However, we happened to find one onTheobald's Road near Holborn.

Its name "Alps", sounds more Swiss than Ethiopian. As "Ethio Modern European Restaurant & Bar"written on the window, it serves also western dishes such as grilled lamb and hamburger, as well as Ethiopian food. This confused us a bit, but we tried the place anyways. According to an Italian staff (it is more confusing!), the Alps just opened on January 7. Another unimaginable combination of British retro look, modern redtables & chairs and black lamp shades, and traditional Ethiopian decoration with handicrafts and painting, is quite quirky and kitsch.

There was no point to eat European food for us there, so we randomly picked three Ethiopian dishes ZilzilTibs(seasoned & marinated strips of beef sauteed with onions, garlic & jalapeno),Yebeg AlechaFitfit(piece of lamb with bones cooked in mild green pepper sauce mixed withinjerabefore being served), and cooked spicy split peas (I forgot its name). After waiting for 20 minutes (though the place was totally empty), charming & friendly chef came out from the kitchen and served us the dishes and a tray with huge Ethiopian breadinjera.He emptied two dishes exceptZilzil Tibs (it has much fluid and makes injera hard to grab). He told us to rip injera and eat together with the food, or with extra injera served on a basket if you prefer (Wikipedia).

After the meal, then the most famous export from Ethiopia coffee. In Ethiopia, the ritual of coffee ceremony(Kariomon)is commonly practiced when making and drinking coffee. You can see the scene of the ceremony with a woman who serves coffe, on a tapestry hanged on the back of the restaurant. The interesting thing in the tapestry is that a bowl of popcorn next to the coffee set the chef explained that the guests eat popcorns while waiting for coffee (though we didn't get it that day). First burning traditional incense was brought to our table. Then the chef came back with a small pan, roasting coffee beans, to let us enjoy the smell. Then poured freshly brewed coffee was poured from ceramicpot (jebena) into small handlelesscups. It was very tasty andnot as strong as I thought.

Here at Alps, time passed slowly, quite unlikely in London, and we enjoyed experiencing and learnning Ethiopian culture and tradition. But my question is can he (the chef) handle these meticulous acts when he encounters loads of customers in his place??

Zilzil Tibs (left) andYebeg AlechaFitfit(middle) on injera

Ethiopian coffee on cute cups

Southbank CentreLondon 2012 FestivalA Room for LondonLondon 2012 Festival200894Cultural Olympiad621991000