Horn of Africa
Crescent Center Shopping Center
1041 Murfreesboro Rd. 366-3468. Open noon-10 p.m. daily
Prior to a few years ago, most Nashvillians were completely unfamiliar with Ethiopian food unless they had experienced the cuisine in another city. Addis Ababa, the tiny restaurant opened on Thompson Lane by Gizachew Tesfaye, introduced the culinarily adventurous in our city to flavorful dishes such as wat, tibs and kitfo, the spice mixture known as berbere and the flat bread known as injera—as well as the custom of utensil-free dining.
A fair number of folks, after satisfying their initial curiosity, became great fans of the savory dishes, the dark little room with bowl-shaped woven tables, the moderate prices and Addis Ababa’s friendly proprietor, who told everyone to call him GT—which rolls off Southern tongues far more easily than Gizachew.
A couple of years ago, much to the dismay of his loyal customers, GT sold Addis Ababa. Since then, the restaurant has gone through several changes in ownership and intermittent openings and closings. As a result, it has suffered a decline in both quality and business, though it continues to operate on what one might call an irregular basis.
I received an e-mail several weeks ago informing me that GT had opened a restaurant in the Kroger shopping center at the intersection of Thompson Lane and Murfreesboro Road. Say no more. On a recent Friday afternoon, a group of former Addis Ababa fans headed out to Horn of Africa. Set in a strip center located across the parking lot from the Kroger, Horn of Africa is clean, cheery and brightly lit, with glass-topped tables set for four, vases of silk flowers and colorful posters of native peoples and places.
Unfortunately, GT wasn’t there the day we lunched, but his presence was unmistakable in the reserved yet warm greeting of his waitress and the quality of the food. The menu is limited—no appetizers, salads, side dishes or desserts—which makes ordering a pretty simple process. Among the half-dozen or so offerings is the staple dish wat, a spicy stew of either chicken or beef cooked in berbere, a spicy concoction of red chilies, cardamom and other seasonings. Also available are the mildly seasoned lega tibs and the spicy tibs, chunks of beef sautéed in butter, then seasoned with onion, green peppers, tomatoes and rosemary—with a spice mixture called awaze adding heat to the spicy version. The kitfo is minced tenderloin served raw or lightly cooked with herbed butter and awaze. In addition to these dishes and the vegetarian platter, there are a couple not featured on the menu at Addis Ababa: doro ferfer, chicken wat mixed in with chunks of injera, and bozena shiro, a soupy stew of yellow split peas and chopped beef in berbere sauce.
All of the dishes we ordered came on the traditional injera; the batter for the bread is made from a grain called teff, fermented, then cooked into flat, spongy, slightly sour rounds about the diameter of a medium pizza. The injera acts as starch, plate, ladle and spoon all in one. At Horn of Africa two rounds of injera are draped over a large, colorful platter, then your doro wat, tibs, kitfo or vegetarian platter are placed in small piles on top. The bozena was poured tableside onto the injera from a small silver pitcher. To eat the Ethiopian way, simply tear off a small piece of bread and use it to pinch a bite-sized mound of chicken or beef or greens, then pop the whole thing in your mouth. (Washing your hands before and after eating is good policy.)
Everything was cooked fresh to order and delivered steaming hot. The vegetarian dish was a feast, though not in the least gluttonous, with small portions of greens, lentils, potatoes and carrots, yellow split peas, and a fabulously zingy mound of chopped fresh tomatoes, diced onion, green chili pepper and herbs. If you can’t get enough injera, you’ll want to order the ferfer: The doro wat that composed about one-third of the dish was well-seasoned, but between the hunks of injera mixed in with the wat, as well as the rounds of injera placed under dish, we were unable to make much of a dent in it—rather unusual for the typically modestly portioned Ethiopian manner of eating. The bozena shiro was robust and spicy, an excellent comfort food for chilly weather.
Lucky for us, Gizachew Tesfaye got back into the restaurant business, bringing the same attention to quality that marked his former establishment at its finest. Horn of Africa is his modest but richly flavored and proud contribution to the increasingly diverse portrait of our city.
