Re: East Bay Ethiopian (was Re: Tonight's sandwiches)

Dave Smith wrote:

serene wrote:

And aside from that i don't care for the spicing of Ethiopian
food. Its
either too spicy, overwhelming the actual ingredients, or bland and

uninteresting. At the risk of sounding like a racist i think there
is a
cultural conspiracy to keep these types of restaurants in business,
it
is politically correct to dine there and praise the food, and god
forbid
one should find something bad to say about the establishment that
it
seems few Blacks actually patronize.

This is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard of.

That's exactly the kind of PC criticism i am talking about. I was not
condemning all Ethiopian restaurants, just the local ones mentioned in
the original post.

Just because you
don't like something, that doesn't mean those of us who do are
pretending for some bizarre political reason.

Im talking about Berkeley California, the veritable home of Political
Correctness.


I *love* Ethiopian/Eritrean food, and when I know we're going to eat

it for dinner, I get all happy and excited.

Sounds Pavlovian to me.



I'm with you. I have only been to one Ethiopian restaurant but had a
nice
sampling of their fair. I was lucky to have been in the company of my
son,
who had been there several times before and had some good
recommendations.
The food wasn't bland and it wasn't over spiced. It was great. It
has
nothing to do with praising or patronizing people from other cultures.
Some
cultures have great food and it's worth trying them.
Last month I went to a local Macedonian restaurant. I had to destroy
JL's
theory, but based on what I had there I don't have a particularly
favourable
view of it, and I am not likely to return to the place to try more of
their
ethnic cuisine.

I'm not sure i understand your last sentence. You don't like it cause it
was not to your taste? and you wont return for that reason? Or are you
suggesting the over all quality of the place is less than desirable,
and if it is popular, why would it be so beyond any ethnic clientele?

Obviously there are what i would consider very bad restaurants that are
very popular, place like Mc Donald's or >shudder< "Wendy's". To me
their popularity has more to do with ignorance than anything else.

There used to be a little hole in the wall place in San Diego that sold
white bread and velveta cheese sandwiches and Campbell's soup and kraft
macaroni & cheese & etc. of that ilk sort of place that was very
popular, with a very, specific segment of the population. Southern,
rural, and generally of a lower economic strata that was used to eating
the kind of food offered.

There are food stores in Oakland Ca. that sell wilted veggies and old
breads and other generally less than quality ingredients and products
but are very popular with a specific class of people that are accustomed
to eating such things.

I remember once a number of years ago when there was a major supermarket
strike and places like safeway and lucky were closed. I used then to
shop at an up scale independent market called Andronicos. I was there
when a women came in with a passel of kids and was visibly stunned by
the profusion of quality fruits and veggies she saw immediately upon
entering the store. And commented to those people with her that she
would not shop any where else again.

There was a local Taquiria (sp?) that got such a glowing write up that i
went there and the food was awful, but again in a very popular area
where a lot of young collage kids hang out. Near by is a place that
makes really great pizza but i wont patronize them cause its always
packed with a line outside waiting to get into a noisy crowded room,
with blaring rock music and full of drunken frat brats. But they make a
great deep dish pizza.Perhaps there are better east bay restaurants than
the ones mentioned in this thread, or in other cities out side of the
east bay.

I would agree that any culture probly has great good food. But my
experiences with Ethiopian restaurants in the east bay have not been
good ones. Went to a Japanese Sushi place in SF a few weeks ago that
literally stank and the food was awful also. If it weren't for a die
hard PC type i was with i would have turned around and walked out. As
it was we went across the street for desert to a different Sushi place
and even the PC
type i was with admitted it was a better place than the one we
originally ate in (nibbled cautiously in my case).

I might also add that the places in Berkeley are mostly patronized by
young naive collage kids and the Blue Nile especially seemed, the few
times i was there, to be very smug & condescending in their attitude to
people unfamiliar with their cuisine. I judge a restaurant on more than
just the food served.

On the other hand there is a Tibetan place that started out very poorly
and became very good. Even considering the lack of traditional
ingredients the cook had to work with.

There's an area in Berkeley that has a dozen or more Indian restaurants
in a small area and some of them are obviously better than others, but i
wont patronize any of them because of the way they price the food. The
same dish can vary greatly in price from one restaurant to the next, and
according to the time of day and IMO all are over priced because they
are popular, i can remember 15 - 20 years ago when the trend started
they were inexpensive and very good, but the more popular they became
the more the quality declined and the price went up.
---
JL


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