Rosalind’S Ethiopian Restaurant

I was mesmerized by the decoration in Rosalind's. It has pictures of the Ethiopian people from tribes, the walls are painted bright yellow and covered with black nyala's an endanger species found in Ethiopia, amazing hut roofs on top of the tables, Hi-Definition television playing a basketball game and neon lights that attracts the eyes. I felt like I was in a different country.

The menu of the restaurant is written in English but the food might not sound familiar. I was relief to see the description of the food, now I knew what I was getting myself into. The dishes from Ethiopia consist of a variety of spices. Almost all the meals encountered in the menu were heavily spiced.

When it came to ordering I went for the raw meat known as gord gord but I was recommended to order a plate that is similar but the meat is slightly cooked so it's not completely raw. One of my dining partner ordered lentil and a dish that reminds me of a Mexican dish called mole. In fact they had similar appearance and taste, it could actually be mole. My other dining partner ordered the meat combination which consists of three dishes from the menu.

When the plate arrived at the table I was surprised at the combination of red, yellow, and black which covered the injera (a sourdough bread). The size of the plate and the amount of food was overwhelming for the three of us to witness. The meal was not meant for three people but for five. It seems like an impossible task to finish the plate or even get halfway through it.

The restaurant does not support utensils you have to eat with the hands, but it does not get messy using the injera. My friends didn't like the texture of the injera and said it interrupted the flavor of the food, but I personally enjoyed it. It wasn't the first time I ate injera, I had already tried it in Nyala, another Ethiopian restaurant near Rosalind's.

The semi-raw meat is sauced in a spiced known as barbera, a red chile sauced which gives the meat a mild kicking flavor. The meat texture is soggy and when it is eaten with the injera it is like mush. The meat combination has a variety of enjoyable meals. They each have their own a spicy flavor, I preferred the meat combination more than my semi-raw meat. The yellow sweet lentil was a nice touch to the plate, since it covered a lot of the spicy flavor radiating from the dishes. The cuisine that I enjoyed was the chicken covered in the spicy sweet dark sauce, it reminded me of the mole( a sweet spicy sauce usually eaten with chicken, its form varies in different region of Mexico) that my mother makes once a month.

The end result of the experience was a bloated stomach and a check that seem reasonable to pay, but yet the way which they charged was confusing since they charge tips depending of the amount of people who dine at the table, which was an extra five dollars. But other than the check and the medium semi-raw meat being a letdown, I left the restaurant with the pleasant memory of the decorative, spices and the kindness of the waitress.

Recommended Dish: Meat combination, Vegetarian combination

Price: Appetizers: 3$-8$ appetizer combination 9$ Main course: 10$-18$(Plus tax and tips tax

Location:_ 1044 South Fairfax Avenue_
Los Angeles, CA 90019-4401_ (Little Ethiopia)

Website link: http://www.rosalindsrestaurant.com/index.html