Blue Nile (in Jamaica Plain, MA) - Finger-lickin' good, literally...

This was my first experience with African food, not counting African coffees like Kenya AA and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Blue Nile is an Ethiopian restaurant located in Hyde Square, on Centre Street. It's right beside Food Wall, which is the go-to Chinese takeout place in Jamaica Plain. The motivation for trying Blue Nile was actually an episode of The Simpsons. Remember when Marge, Lisa, and Bart became foodies after they ate at an Ethiopian restaurant?

Yeah, that episode inspired me to try Ethiopian food! I wish I were making this up but it's true. I really didn't know anything about Ethiopian cuisine except that they grew wonderful coffee beans. Anyway, I'm very glad that I tried Blue Nile because Ethiopian food is delicious!

Tikil Gommon (top left), Shiro Wet (top right)?
Siga Wet (bottom)

I had the Nile combo, which includes a meat dish and 3 vegetable dishes for takeout. When she gave me the box, it was quite heavy! It came with 2 rounds of injera bread. One was used to line the box and one was placed on top of the meat and veggies. It was a lot of food! I couldn't eat it all in one sitting and the leftovers lasted for about 2 more meals. It was very tasty with all of the different items seasoned just right. I had the Siga Wet (Beef), Shiro Wet, Tikil Gommon, And Yatakilt Wet. Check out their menu. The combo is definitely enough for at least 2 people. Here are some pictures of my first meal from Blue Nile:

When you open the box, it looks like this. 

The beef and vegetables are under the injera bread.

Everything was seasoned perfectly. Plenty of injera bread to scoop it all up!

The brown stuff is the Siga Wet (beef).
The veggies (bottom right) is Yatakilt Wet.

I'm not sure this is the right way to scoop
but it sure tastes good!

Anyway, try this place! They do take-out and your food will be ready very quickly. If you're going to the new Whole Foods in JP, Blue Nile is on the other side of the rotary so you can just pick up some takeout on the way home.

Another place to get Ethiopian food:

A couple of months ago, I was at the South End Food Emporium and was tempted to buy a package of injera bread. However, there were a 

lot of them in one package and I wasn't sure I could eat all of them so I just bought some green Ethiopian coffee beans and went home. Now that I know that I like injera bread, I'll probably go buy a package of it at the South End Food Emporium the next time I'm there to buy more green coffee beans (they have roasted beans too). Injera bread can be used to scoop up anything resembling a thick stew or dip.

I need more practice...

This is when I had to stop eating because I was full!