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| - To begin, I must issue a caveat. I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten Ethiopian food, and I've always enjoyed the food itself. The bread (injera), however, has always been a curiosity to me. One time it tasted really spongey and gross, one time it had a smell like wet paper towels (probably not intentional) and both times it looked like that Saturday Night Live commercial for edible diapers (http://www.hulu.com/watch/55587/saturday-night-live-pampers). You're welcome for the visual, by the way.
That said, let's begin. I first went to Abay three years ago when I was on a blind date.
It was an unpleasant experience. Picking up food with your fingers and shoving it into your mouth while sitting across the table from somebody who is annoying and SHARING THE SAME FOOD AS YOU WITH HIS GROSS FINGERS was not the best milieu in which to judge the restaurant's merits.
But time has passed and with it those memories, so it was time I gave Abay another chance.
In a word: delightful. The service was terrific and the food was equally good. And the injera, though still decidedly looking like Pampers, was not spongey and gross; rather, it was innocuous, which is not a word I would usually employ as a compliment, but I will today. I particularly enjoyed the peanut and chicken combo, which tasted oddly like an unholy peanut butter hybrid, but in no-nonsense, lip-smacking way. Also excellent was the collard greens and homemade cheese. The only thing I wasn't fond of was one of the meatless entrees my dining companion ordered. This was easy to ignore, though, since I had three other samples to focus on.
The price was quite good, too. The sampler platter for two runs a fair $26, and is more than filling. Save room for Oh Yeah ice cream, which is only a block away.
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