ST. LOUIS, MO — Among the flourishing collection of ethnic restaurants on St. Louis’s Grand Boulevard sits the comfortable and gently decorated Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant.
Meskerem is a family-owned operation that also has two restaurants in New York and one in Charlotte, N.C. The St. Louis location opened about a year ago.
I’d never eaten Ethiopian food until my pal Nate and I visited Meskerem. The restaurant offers a variety of beef, chicken, lamb and vegetarian dishes, all affordably priced; the majority of entrees are $9 to $13.
Ethiopian food is eaten without cutlery. Diners use their right hand to break off a piece of injera, a bland and spongy flatbread made from a grain called teff, then use the injera to scoop up the food.
The Ethiopian spice blend berbere (bur-ba-ree) gives the food a solid kick, although fans of vindaloo and hot curry might find it a bit tame. The blend shows up in a number of saucy dishes, including ones with chickpeas, minced collard greens and/or lentils.
Our meal began with two beef sambosas ($4), deep-fried triangles of pastry filled with chopped beef, hot green pepper, onions and garlic. This was one of the few items on the menu that is served hot. The vegetarian version uses lentils in place of beef and sells for a dollar less. The filling was tasty but a bit dry, and if we had eaten at the restaurant, we probably would have asked for a saucy condiment of some sort.
On the server’s recommendation, we sampled a second appetizer. Azifa (ah-zie-fa) ($4.95) is a light dish made of brown lentils, green peppers and onion mashed in a tangy Ethiopian mustard vinaigrette.
We also enjoyed the butecha (boo-teh-cha) ($8.95), which is milled chickpeas, onions and jalapeños sautéed in olive oil and cooked with lemon juice. The flavors reminded us of an oniony potato salad.
We shared a beef combination plate that was more than enough for two hungry men. The Meskerem combo ($12.95) includes tibs wat, which is tender thin cuts of beef sautéed in berbere. We really enjoyed the gomen besaega (bee-say-ga), beef seasoned with garlic, onion and ginger set atop some wonderful chopped collard greens (we’ll order this separately on another visit).
The combination platter was rounded out with two lentil sides. Miser alecha (a-leh-cha) is split lentils with ginger, garlic, onion and a mild curry sautéed in olive oil. Miser wat is similar to alecha, with berbere sauce instead of curry. Both lentil dishes reminded us of refried beans.
The only complaint we had about our meal was the temperature of the injera. Our order included seven or eight pieces of this bread, and each was refrigerator-cold. A call to the restaurant confirmed the injera should have been at room temperature; they offered to deliver replacements to my home, but we declined.
Sampling cuisines of the world is an adventure. We get to meet some nice people who take great pride in pleasing our palates. Meskerem did a wonderful job of introducing us to some of the foods of Ethiopia.
Meskerem is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. By Gordon McKnight, St. Louis Post-Dispatch