Ethiopian Beef Stew
Recently I read a culinary blog about Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was very exciting to read about it as it is such a remote country historically plagued by droughts and war. I smiled while reading this expose, remembering my near death experience in Addis Ababa and oddly wishing I was there again.
On a trip to Tanzania, we had a flight stop over in Ethiopia. The plane started descending and while we were still flying through the clouds all of a sudden I (along with the pilot and other passengers) saw a farmer with a cow walking just below the belly of the plane. Wow! I'm not kidding. I could see the men's surprised face and his every wrinkle it seemed. Within a moment the plane started to pull up as if it was a fighter plane but much slower, like a donkey running in a horse race. As we ascended back through the low cloud ceiling I could see endless walls of mountains surrounding what was surely Addis Ababa beneath the clouds. The plane seemed to circle indecisively until the captain came on to make an announcement.
The captain explained that we were in unparalleled fog and that the airport was nestled high up in the mountains in a valley amongst peeks and the airport had no technical support to help the plane land. The captain missed the runway the first time and now he would attempt to land again. I was frightened to death, I could visualize all the bodies splattered on the mountain walls.... and here we are attempting another landing. This could not be safe. This attempt failed and the pilot made another announcement in Ethiopian apparently indicating he was not going to try that again. We survived and were re-routed to Djibouti, a military state next to Ethiopia across the straight from Yemen. We were told to stay in the plane, and with the big Apache helicopters parked next to us, we were happy to have survived and were praying no one was going to try walk off the plane because surely they would be shot dead.
After a few hours the fog lifted in Addis Ababa and we returned to it's airport, safe and sound. We only had a few hours at the airport. Nevertheless I remember Ethiopia very fondly, all the people were so kind, and I do hope to explore this country properly at a different time. This recipe is my tribute to my memories of Ethiopia. I love how foods can transport one in time and space to different places in the world.
Click here for my Ethiopian Beef Stew recipe and transform yourself to Africa... with a guaranteed smooth landing.
On a trip to Tanzania, we had a flight stop over in Ethiopia. The plane started descending and while we were still flying through the clouds all of a sudden I (along with the pilot and other passengers) saw a farmer with a cow walking just below the belly of the plane. Wow! I'm not kidding. I could see the men's surprised face and his every wrinkle it seemed. Within a moment the plane started to pull up as if it was a fighter plane but much slower, like a donkey running in a horse race. As we ascended back through the low cloud ceiling I could see endless walls of mountains surrounding what was surely Addis Ababa beneath the clouds. The plane seemed to circle indecisively until the captain came on to make an announcement.
The captain explained that we were in unparalleled fog and that the airport was nestled high up in the mountains in a valley amongst peeks and the airport had no technical support to help the plane land. The captain missed the runway the first time and now he would attempt to land again. I was frightened to death, I could visualize all the bodies splattered on the mountain walls.... and here we are attempting another landing. This could not be safe. This attempt failed and the pilot made another announcement in Ethiopian apparently indicating he was not going to try that again. We survived and were re-routed to Djibouti, a military state next to Ethiopia across the straight from Yemen. We were told to stay in the plane, and with the big Apache helicopters parked next to us, we were happy to have survived and were praying no one was going to try walk off the plane because surely they would be shot dead.
After a few hours the fog lifted in Addis Ababa and we returned to it's airport, safe and sound. We only had a few hours at the airport. Nevertheless I remember Ethiopia very fondly, all the people were so kind, and I do hope to explore this country properly at a different time. This recipe is my tribute to my memories of Ethiopia. I love how foods can transport one in time and space to different places in the world.
Click here for my Ethiopian Beef Stew recipe and transform yourself to Africa... with a guaranteed smooth landing.
Labels: Addis Ababa, delicious, donkey, Ethiopian beef stew, fog, plane, Yemen
posted by Monika Korngut @ 8:55 PM
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