Ethiopian food & traditional dance at Yod Abyssinia

My bogging is getting a little behind due to the slow internet connection at the hotels.

On our last night in Addis, the team went out for a night of traditional Ethiopian food and folk dance. I was worried WE would be the ones doing the dancing, but instead we were treated to an amazing show while we at delicious food.

The restaurant was caled Yod Abyssinia and seemed like quite a drive from the Hilton.

Once we arrived and found seats, the show began with a team of musicians on stage playing traditional Ethiopian music.

Our first performer was a beautiful woman with a soulful voice. At one point in her performance a Japanese business man was so enthralled he even got up on stage to dance with her a bit.

As we listened to the music, they brought out a delicious white wine for all of us to share.

Soon, we were called into the buffet area and were greeting by a washing station. The attendant has some soap he dispensed into your hands, and then as you washed he poured warm water from his kettle over your hands until they were rinsed.

The buffet included all sorts of traditional Ethiopian dishes, starting with one of their staples...Injera.

Injera is a spongy, sour flatbread and is used instead of a fork or spoon to pick up the other food items on your plate. It soaks up the juices from the differenct sauces perfectly. Injera is made with teff, a tiny round grain that is easy to grow in Ethiopia. Teff is very nutritious, however it contains practically no gluten so it wouldn't work well to make a bread that needs to rise.

Everything has extreme flavor, and often has a nice bit of spice.

After we filled our plates, we headed back to our seats in time for a beautiful performance. 3 male dancers and 3 female dancers filled the evening with several different performances...many of the performances included coy flirting from one sex to the other and appeared to be courtship rituals.

The men came out and strutted their moves...trying hard to impress the ladies.

and then it was the women's turn to impress and charm the men with their moves. Much of their dancing included subtle shouler pops & movements of their necks.

The grand finale inluded some wild head swinging. These ladies could have kept up with the best of the head banging Heavy Metal fans!



The evening was so much fun, and I think left all of us with our toes tapping as we headed back to the hotel.