midwest

week 32: addis abeba

in ,

my knowledge of ethiopia is:

which is in fact no knowledge at all.

so i took it upon myself to learn more.

mum woke me up yesterday at the wee wee hour of noon and said,

if you're not ready in fifteen minutes to go eat ethiopian food with me and stoopie and marshy, you're starving.

here it is. 

addis abeba

evanston's finest ethiopian!

marshy and mum and stoop enjoying themselves.

i need to try it again when i haven't just gotten out of bed...

20

to go.

xoxo

yeh

addis abeba

is on chicago ave in evanston.

around the corner from

will

's old apartment.

birthday dinner, volume two...

in , ,

...was the traditional bash in honor of both my birthday and the pops' birthday
{which was today- happy birthday, pops!}
at the extremely sold-out
which we've been going to every year since i can remember.

in recent years,
it has become increasingly more commercial--
{adding cheesy pictures to the menus,
offering smaller portions,
 the abolishment of the sassy garlic lecture from the waiters....}

this year,
what really did it in was the ads on the place mats for the hollywood film
letters to juliet
or whatever,
you know,
a la mcdonalds. 
way to keep things classy, buca. 


at any rate,
the cake
{which used to be all red, now a showcase of italy pride}
was as artificial and delicious as ever!


hooray!


xoxo


yeh




birthday dinner...

in , ,

...at the 




was drunken,


bretzeln-filled,
{accompanied by mustard, yay!}


 meaty,


and wiener-y!

and it was all accompanied by an
oompa
band
that wouldn't let me take over the drumset for just one tune...
maybe it was for my own good?




the cake
from the bakery across the street from the brauhaus,
was an almond torte covered in marzipan and chocolate
and was delicious.
{since my elaborate marzipan pig collection in the third grade, i've been a sucker for marzipan}



the schnitzel
exceeded my expectations
{even though my expectations have sadly been lowered, thanks to new york city's b-rated efforts when it comes to the deutsches essen}
the shell was thick & crispy
 the spätzle doughy
and the green beans--
hah who are we kidding? i didn't eat green beans on my birthday

...and may we all just pause for a second and recognize how photogenic a schnitzel and his friends are?
if it's done right,
the earthy brown color of the schnitzel,
with the creamy white of the spätzle,
and the forrest green veggies,
{and the small portion of bright yellow from the lemon}
just compliment each other so well,
they may as well be 
the supermodel of meat. 

it's just another reason to eat schnitzel often.


i digress.

my birthday dinner was great!
beautiful people + beautiful food... what better way to celebrate??


xoxo


yeh


p.s. i promise i had enough water