take me to delicious town

i drove out to meet my bff in bklyn one night to pick up some stuff. after blabbing about whatever we decided to have something to eat. i remembered her telling me that there was an Ethiopian restaurant nearby when she first moved there. i really wanted to try it but there was also a BBQ place nearby (i heart BBQ, we both do) so we decided to scope out the Ethiopian joint and see if it was something worth giving up the precious space in our tummies that could've been filled with BBQ madness otherwise. there really wasn't much to debate it looked amazing, we could get BBQ anytime.

photo courtesy of Bati's website

the place is called Bati, located at 747 Fulton Street in Bklyn. it was really good, it's the only Ethiopian food i have ever had (yet), so i am no aficionado of African cuisine but we had an amazing time. it had the prefect amount of lighting, i hate eating in really bright places, i like ambiance, it was byob which was cool, our waiter was awesome and the food was great! i loved eating communally with my bestie and tearing off the injera to scoop the goodness into my face.

so i have been a little obsessed with our meal that night, for one thing, i'll eat meat, (the chicken stew was spicy goodness ) but i don't really like to eat too much of it. they had a variety of lentil, pea and chick pea dishes that i really liked and the collards were amazing! i needed to figure out a way to spice up my lentil and legume dishes so i started a search last saturday to find out more about Ethiopian dishes. i found out that there is a spice blend called berbere. i really didnt feel like going on a mad search to find all the spices to make a mix myself - i know laaaaazy! and cheap! hey, i am too busy sewing to be tracking down spices and grinding them up to make my own spice mixture. could i find it online?? could there be someone cool enough to make this blend on etsy?? oh there was!!!!!

step in emburke, a great spice shop i found on etsy: freshly made berbere!! and you get a really good amount i was scared i wouldn't get enough but it's a generous portion sure to keep me busy. smells amazing. put some on my tongue tastes amazing. now i just have to obtain some recipes.