Daddy eats Ethiopian

Last weekend we had the opportunity to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant. I was very excited for Joshua to get to eat injera again and for Chad to try Ethiopian food. It ended up being a very memorable experience.

We arrived at the small restaurant in a poorer section of town at about 7PM. It was not the sort of place we would usually go to, but my sister in law had checked it out through friends and it had good reviews, so in we went.

We found a couple of tables sit at and they promptly brought the menus. My husband scanned the menu and quickly asked, "Where is the MEAT?" At that point my sister in law got the giggles and confessed that she had "forgotten" to mention that it was a vegetarian Ethiopian restaurant.

Needless to say the guys were not happy! (Which by the way was why Emily did not mention it. I suspect she knew they would NOT go if there was no meat, so she left that piece of information out so Joshua would get to go!)

At this point there is a bit of grumbling going through our group. New food is one thing but VEGETARIAN food, oh man!!!

As I try not to giggle, Joshua grabs my face and says, "Mommy Joshua hungry! Chickeny food please?"

Yep - I laughed out loud. When I told him we were not going to have chicken, he responded, "Pizza? Corn dogs? Pleasie?"

I was rolling at that point and his daddy was not! Neither of my guys had a CLUE WHAT THEY WOULD EAT FOR DINNER.

So we ordered pretty much everything on the menu. It came looking like this:

We all grabbed some injera and decided to taste a bit of everything. Joshua soon found his favorite and was eating as fast as I could feed him. Emily, the teen-agers, and I enjoyed quite a few of the dishes.

Meanwhile, Daddy looked like this:
Not too happy! Chad can and will eat most anything and there was NOTHING that he enjoyed on the platter. After popping a really hot pepper into his mouth and turning a stunning shade of red, he stopped eating all together.

By the time we left he was seriously upset. When we got in the car I finally figured out why when he confessed, "Alicia, I do not think I can ever go to Ethiopia."

Then I got it. He was not really all that upset about paying for as meal he did not enjoy. He was worried that he would never see the birthplace of our son. I quickly reassured him that we could fill a suitcase with freeze dried meals. He will get there someday. I am sure of it!

After stopping for this:

he felt much better!