The Weekend, Part I--Valentine's Day

We had a busy weekend last weekend. Friday we went out for drinks with Matt's workmates. Saturday was Valentine's Day and Matt's parents said we should go out for dinner and a movie on them. We chose to go to an Ethiopian restaurant because I think we prefer Ethiopian above any type of restaurant food, and it's one of the specialty restaurant foods which we have no idea how to make.

We went to Zigni House in Angel, Islington (which perhaps Jill and Tim will recognise because we went there with them once). When we got there the place was empty so we took some pictures to give you an idea what the restaurant is like and what Ethiopian/Eritrean food is like.

You can see that the tables are placed in the center of informal couches and stools:


Basically, they have this pancake-type thing called injera, made out of fermented rice and wheat flour. They roll one out on a really big plate and on top they pile various dishes, kind of like curry, but flavored with I know not what. It looks like this:


Matt and I got one that had a combination of different vegetarian and meat dishes. You tear off pieces of injera and use it to scoop up some meat, veg and sauce.

Injera has the same property as pancakes of slowly settling in your stomach so that you think you're not full and you eat a lot, until all of a sudden your pants need unbuttoning. This is actually one of the reasons why we like Ethiopian food, because you never, ever go away unsatisfied.

After we had finished eating, the restaurant gave us a complementary Valentine's Day dessert of whipped cream and strawberries with chocolate sauce in martini glasses.

After dinner, we went to a movie at a small theatre. They were having a Valentine's Day deal of a movie, a glass of champagne and a brownie, so we saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona.