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11 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,A ugust 22,2019 w aterloochronicle.ca expert advice? breaking news? today's top stories? where you live? crime? events? what to read? cooking? SIGN UPNOW We've got a newsletter for that. Care about /newsletters The idea is simple: cook up a half-dozen or so legumes and veg- etables, arrange them on a large pancake-like flatbread and invite several of your friends to dig in - without utensils. That's the basic concept - the sensory and tactile nature of the experience - when you eat with your fingers at an Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurant like East Af- rican Café in downtown Kitche- ner. Owner Afework Girmayie, a civil engineer by training, is Eri- trean and came to Canada from Ethiopia through Greece in 1993, where he met his wife Helen. They've operated the restaurant for 12 years with Helen taking care of the cooking, while Afe- work oversees the front-of-house. He says that he wants to en- courage vegan diners to visit, though there is beef and lamb on the menu. "In Eritrea and Ethiopia, we eat vegan 200 days of the year," says Girmayie. "That's a tradi- tion." The 40-seat restaurant has a menu with a half-dozen vegetari- an options, such as misir (split red beans), lentils, ater alicha (yellow peas) and tikil gomen, a stew of potatoes, cabbage and carrots. Hamlie is a deliciously grassy combination of greens like collard and kale jacked up by some garlic. The shiro - mostly chickpeas, beans, garlic, chilies and garlic - is good as well. Order the veggie platter and vi- sually the legumes and vegetables form a delicious rainbow on an in- jera palette; my palate tells me that just about every dish features garlic, and there's deep and rich flavour here that derives from the seasoning and the longer cooking process needed to soften the fi- brous legumes. On the meat side, kifto is the cuisine's version of tartare, while either sautéed lamb or beef go into making alicha tibs, small cubes of protein with spiced butter. And, of course, there's berbere: it's a not- too-hot chile pepper-based blend that's key to cooking in Ethiopia and used in many dishes. Varying from mild to spicy, these form the side dishes, essen- tially, because that bubbly, pan- cake-like flatbread, injera, is the centre of attention - and the vehi- cle for transporting ater alicha to your mouth. The large disc is made with teff flour (a grass native to the region around Ethiopia), sorghum flour and wheat. "Injera is round. We all sit down in a circle around it and eat," according to Girmayie, who says he's working on a gluten-free injera that will always be on the menu. (With at least 24 hours' no- tice, the kitchen can create a glu- ten-free version.) Gluten or not, the injera, soft, moist and slightly tangy, is the centrepiece of a quintessentially communal dining experience with others, but it also puts you in close contact with your food. "It's good to use your fingers to eat," Girmayie adds. "You have the feeling of the food in your hand." There is a vegan buffet on Tuesdays, from noon to 3 p.m. East African Café is licensed. Dishes are made fresh to order, so they may take a bit of time to get to your table. (By the way, the late physicist Stephen Hawking ate here.) Open Monday to Saturday at 12 p.m. Andrew Coppolino is a Kitche- ner-based food writer and broad- caster. Visit him at waterlooregio- neats.com or email: apcoppoli- no@rogers.com. DON'T SKIP THIS DISH: VEGGIE PLATTER AND INJERA AT KITCHENER'S EAST AFRICAN CAFÉ The veggie platter and injera at the East African Café in Kitchener. Andrew Coppolino photo OPINION BUBBLY, PANCAKE-LIKE FLATBREAD IS THE CENTRE OF ATTENTION, WRITES ANDREW COPPOLINO ANDREW COPPOLINO Column EAST AFRICAN CAFÉ 50 Ontario Street South Kitchener, ON N2G 1X5 Phone: 519-342-0216 Website: www.eastafricancafe.com Hours: Open Monday, and Wednesday to Saturday, from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday, noon to 3 p.m. (vegan buffet). Closed Sunday.