Mike Sutter AMERICAN-STATESMAN

The vegetarian sampler included cabbage and carrots, bottom left, red split lentils, top left, yellow split peas, center, string beans and carrots stew, right top, and collard greens.

Mike Sutter AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Spoonfuls of the vegetarian sampler of yellow split peas, red split lentils, collard greens, string beans and carrots stew, and cabbage and carrots, plus the beef chefuye and tibbs, top layers of injera.

Taste of Ethiopia

Served warm (and with warmth) in Pflugerville, a family-style education in spiced meat and vegetables

By Mike Sutter
AMERICAN-STATESMAN RESTAURANT CRITIC
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

I'm no Ph.D. in gastro-culturalism, but I've seen enough to know that Ethiopian food is a full-contact sport, at least the way it's done at Taste of Ethiopia, a Pflugerville restaurant recommended to me by austin360.com colleague Matthew Odam.

The meat and vegetable dishes might come to the table in boundary-respecting bowls of their own, but unless you put a stop to it, out they go onto this flying saucer of a platter lined with injera, the Horn of Africa's answer to the tortilla or the pita.

From there, it's a free-for-all. Sweet cabbage and carrots (tikil gomen) bump into grainy yellow split peas with the peppery warmth of turmeric (ater kik), which in turn get a good soak of peppery red sauce from the rosemary-scented simmered beef (tibbs). Tear off a piece of injera and wrap it around anything that looks good, or you might get left out.

Somehow, even in these Purell-ian times, this all makes sense, propelled by the warmth of hosts Woinee Mariam and her husband, Solomon Hailu, Ethiopian immigrants who opened Taste of Ethiopia in October. The restaurant joins Aster's and Karibu in Austin as outposts for the country's love affair with garlic, red berbere spice and ginger.

For our circular bounty, we ordered the beef tibbs described above ($10.95), a sampler of five vegetarian dishes ($17.95 for two, $11.95 for one) and a beef specialty called chefuye ($11.95). Mariam spooned the dishes into two sets of roughly equal portions within the big platter, explaining the spices and components of each one as she went, saving the robust tibbs for the center. In a basket to the side, injera played a host of roles: silverware, gravy mop, napkin. It's truly a wonder bread.

In addition to the cabbage and split peas mentioned earlier, the vegetable sampler included chopped and steamed collard greens with a sly jalapeño and garlic bite (gomen), a robust stew of string beans and carrots tingling with ginger and tomato (fesolia) and aggressively spiced split lentils (yemisir wot) to keep things interesting. Brightly dressed salads of lettuce, tomato and onion took the tray's four compass points.

But the winner of the cafe-pageant sash for Most Enigmatic Dish went to chefuye, an $11.95 collection of lean beef chunks the size of robin's eggs warmed in clarified butter and served with collard greens and housemade cottage cheese. It's important to say 'warmed,' because for all practical purposes, we're talking about a fistful of raw meat. But the earthy spice warmed the mouth, and the meat was as yielding as the best tenderloin, though it came from the beef knuckle, also called the tip roast. The greens and soft cheese lent sweetness, bitterness and sour creaminess to the dish, making it a fully rounded flavor experience.

Judging from its humble home in a catch-all strip mall that includes a Mexican barbecue, a nail shop and an Asian restaurant, I didn't expect atmosphere from Taste of Ethiopia, exactly. But with muted ochre walls, a gallery-quality photo installation of Ethiopian men on horseback and a side patio tented with billowing tan fabric, the setting matched the food for its embracing warmth.

Speaking of warmth, the place gets extra-credit points for its Ethiopian coffee fortified with cardamom and cinnamon, the better to elbow out your tablemates for first dibs on the tibbs.

msutter@statesman.com; 912-5902

Taste of Ethiopia

1466 Grand Avenue Parkway, Pflugerville, 251-4053, www.tasteofethiopiaaustin.com

Rating (casual dining): 8.0 out of 10

Hours:11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Lunch buffet 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Prices:Starters $3 (fried sambusas) to $5 (tomato salad). Vegetarian main courses $7.95 (split lentils in berbere-spiced sauce, called yemisir wot) to $17.95 (vegetarian sampler for two). Meat main courses $10.95 (curried beef stew called alicha siga wot) to $11.95 (berbere-spiced stew with chicken and boiled egg called doro wot). Spiced tea or Ethiopian coffee is $1.75. The lunch buffet is $8.95.

Payment:All major cards

Bar:The restaurant is just weeks away from getting its liquor license, co-owner Solomon Hailu said. After that, there will be beer and wine, including choices from Ethiopia.

Wheelchair access:Yes

What the rating means:The average of weighted scores for food, service, atmosphere and value