Manchester can be a blustery, overcast city, but back when you could visit restaurants without restrictions, you could happily crank up the heat with some Ethiopian food.
Hearty (and spicy) enough to banish any winter blues, you can easily find delectable East African fare ‘up North,’ you just have to know where to look.
Read on to get your hands dirty, and to dunk your tastebuds in deliciously underrated Ethiopian food and coffee at Manchester’s Habesha, and Asmara Bella.
On the hunt for authentic Ethiopian food
Hidden away at the top of an unsuspecting white spiral staircase on the first floor of a Turkish takeaway in Manchester’s Gay Village, you would never know Habesha was there.
Simplistic red and white décor awaits inside, and with a modest looking little bar at the end, you would be forgiven for thinking this place seems a little… *whispers* …dated.
But once you take an apprehensive nibble of Habesha’s injera, all the colours wake up and come to life as if by Ethiopian magic.
For the uninitiated, injera is a huge spongy, round flatbread the size of a Costa coffee tray, torn off by hand and eaten piece by piece with various toppings.
And boy, does it get enjoyably messy!
Injera has been making quite the name for itself outside the African continent lately.
Made from the fine grain ‘teff’, it contains nutritious quantities of calcium and protein, and has the added benefit of being gluten free, so it ticks many modern health-conscious boxes.
And as such, it is counted in Europe and the US as a ‘super grain,’ a secret the Ethiopians have clearly been in on all along.
But back to Habesha.
Always serving Ethiopian food with a smile, Habesha’s wait staff are happy and helpful, and it does not go unnoticed as they arrive with your meal on colourfully handwoven plates.
The staff are happy to give an explanation of the rudimentary-looking mishmash of toppings, which include spicy red lentils, yellow split peas, and lean minced beef.
And these can also easily be made fully vegetarian or vegan, so no worries if that is where your dietary requirements lie.
Once the flavours of Ethiopia are firing up your palate, it is then that the genuine African furnishings on the walls spring into view.
Pointy woven baskets, wooden artefacts, and paintings of yellow-swaddled African ladies all lend a subtle, artisanal hint that the food is just as genuine as the staff’s smiles.
And as the tables soon fill up with both African and Caucasian faces, it can get rowdy as the kids join in.
Chickpea stew ends up smeared on tiny faces, and the grown-ups peacefully sink their beverages as they run cheeky riots in the restaurant’s spacious open area.
It all adds up to a heartening and genuine atmosphere, where one feels like part of an adopted family they didn’t even grow up in.
And so it looks like Habesha’s incredible Ethiopian food and hospitality is showing.
Considering just how far Ethiopian food has travelled to grace Manchester with its presence (9,280 kilometres to be exact), Habesha is fantastic value for money.
One serving of injera always includes an extra few rolls, which you will take home.
Because even if your belly is as hungry as a literal black hole in space, you will not be able to finish everything set out in front of you.
Habesha’s injera with all the toppings costs £8, plus a bottle of authentic Ethiopian beer at £3 each, means you will not spend more than around £11-15 per person.
And if you get a hankering for more Ethiopian food later, you can guarantee it tastes even better heated up in the microwave the next day.
A bit like last night’s takeaway pizza, except far superior.
Their COVID regulations appear to be airtight too, with socially-distanced tables, regular disinfection, and staff temperature checks.
Coffee is integral to Ethiopian hospitality
And so a mere hop, skip and a jump into the Northern Quarter, 15 minutes across town, you land at Asmara Bella just in time for an Ethiopian coffee experience.
Around the corner from the district’s slew of ever-trendy bars, Asmara Bella is also a fantastic place to patronise for a bellyful of Ethiopian food before a night out.
But their eye-popping coffee ceremony is what you really go there for.
A fundamental aspect of Ethiopian food and hospitality, the country’s coffee is a major export.
A hangover from Mussolini’s miserable failure at attempting to colonise Ethiopia, you can undoubtedly find good coffee, especially in the capital Addis Ababa.
Kind of ridiculous to think a despotic Italian dictator actually tried to monopolise liquid black gold all the way over in eastern Africa if you think about it.
But if you happen not to be there at the moment, you can still play make-believe and pretend that you are – if you pay a visit to Asmara Bella.
Should you arrive early, you may find you are waiting a few minutes as the staff set up, and there is sometimes a wait on the coffee too.
But it is absolutely worth it if you are a coffee fan.
This stuff has been brewed over charcoal in a jebena, a clay urn with a sizeable pouring spout, and it definitely provides a little theatre with your ensuing caffeine buzz.
Ethiopian families usually only have one jebena, and it becomes something of a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation.
And as the social art of coffee-brewing is tied to femininity and home-making in Ethiopia, a female member of staff will bring it to your table.
Smiling of course – because Ethiopians and Eritreans are always smiling, even in rainy Manchester.
A lovely basket of savoury popcorn accompanies your Ethiopian joe, and as you sip and munch along, the world and its worries melt away for hours at a time.
And it will most likely take you hours to finish a full jebena of coffee.
Incense will also heighten your olfactory senses, and you will be transported to the Eastern Horn of Africa in one smoky instant.
Diminutive, delicate leather art pieces and woodcrafts that resemble musical instruments adorn the walls, and some celebrate neighbour Eritrea as well as Ethiopia.
The two share a border as Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993, after Eritrea was first formed in 1890 as Italy’s doomed outpost, ‘Colonia Eritrea’.
So if you don’t know, now you know.
Asmara Bella’s coffee ceremony costs less than £10, and it feels like free refills because of the huge jebena, so if you are with a friend, it is great value.
Like Habesha, this place serves genuine fare, and so both Ethiopians and Eritreans as well as local Mancunians frequent Asmara Bella.
And so with its long-lasting and delicious coffee, Asmara Bella is most certainly bella.
You can currently order food and drinks from Asmara Bella on Just-eat.co.uk, though sadly without the coffee ceremony for the moment.
Have you experienced Ethiopian food and hospitality? Tell us about your experiences, we love to hear them!
Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ethiopian-food-best-dishes-africa/index.html
http://www.habesharestaurant.co.uk/
https://www.foodrepublic.com/2015/10/14/ethiopian-food-primer-10-essential-dishes/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebena
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea%E2%80%93Ethiopia_relations
