If you're happiest when you have direct, hands-on contact with dinner, Cafe Lalibela is your destination.
That's because you don't mess with forks, knives or spoons at this charming, wallet-friendly Ethiopian restaurant in Tempe. You go native, digging directly into your dinner with your right hand.
It's actually quite a civilized process. The food is served on a communal tray lined with injera, the spongy homeland flatbread made out of teff flour. Tear off a piece of injera and scoop into the stews resting on top. Repeat until the food is gone.
The stews include beef, fish, chicken and lamb, most of them seasoned with berbere, fashioned out of fragrant (but not spicy) red chiles. If you want to push the envelope, try kitfo, Ethiopian beef tartare perfumed with cardamom.
Cafe Lalibela also has a terrific vegetarian component. Look for aromatic dishes made from lentils, yellow split peas, green beans and collard greens. Lightly spiced tikil gomen, put together with cabbage, carrot and potato, is especially fetching.
Wash everything down with a glass of Ethiopian tej, a honey wine that the ancients called mead. It puts a sweet, liquid exclamation point on an exotically affordable experience.
Details: 849 w. University Drive, Tempe. 480-829-1939, cafelalibela.com.
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