A postcard from Footscray

I got the most lovely email the other day and felt it really encapsulated everything I love about Footscray.  I know I blog about the west, but reading through, I felt like I was seeing it with fresh eyes.  I couldn't wipe the smile off my face the whole email!  With the author's permission, I'd like to share it with you.  (I've added some links to the places either she or I refer to, and also some purty pics from my collection...)

Hi Lauren, Thanks so much for your reply...and don’t feel bad about the delay...  I can relate to that :-)

Thanks to your blog, I had the best day on Friday in the market and surrounds!  I drew myself a map and marked in all your suggestions, going first to the grocery market (your suggestion) across the road from the station...where I found the Red Boat fish sauce!  Sorry, can’t think of names and I’ve thrown out my bit of paper.

 

Pho from Hung Vuong Saigon, 128 Hopkins St, Footscray

As it was around midday when I arrived on the train from Geelong, I headed for the place you recommended for Pho (Huong Vien?)  Wow.  I had the beef & chicken one.  I’ll be back!

Then went looking for Mama Rosina’s, but couldn’t find it anywhere.  Never mind, found a little place selling grains and went in and asked them about Teff.  They told me I’d get it at Bharat Traders, 580 Barkly St.  As I was in Barkly St, I thought it can’t be too far.........!!!  Anyway, got my Teff...and found out I could get a bus back...thankfully! 

This was another lovely memorable part of my visit.  On the bus, I felt like I was a tourist in another country (not sure which one though...Vietnam, Nth Africa, India? :-) )  So many ladies offered me a seat beside them (taking pity on an elderly foreigner!)  I sat with a Vietnamese lady and struck up a conversation with her, then an Indian lady in the seat behind joined in, both offering to help with directions.  They were just lovely...  One of them even got off the bus with me and walked me in the direction of Mesnoy Bakery.

 

Meftuha from Mesnoy Injera Bakery "baking" injera at a festival in Footscray

So...I got my Injera!!  The two girls at Mesnoy were so friendly and helpful too.  When I showed them my Teff they rolled their eyes a bit and told me exactly what you said :-( * Never mind...think I’d already decided I wasn’t going to attempt it.  My son-in-law is going to though; he loves fermented stuff, so it won’t be wasted.

Anyway, I’ll try and shorten my story. I had a great time stocking up...well, as much as I could.  My fingers were nearly cut in half from the weight of my two shopping bags...and I had to get back to Southern Cross to catch the 6.30 train back to Swan Hill...finally home about midnight.  Put all but two pieces of Injera straight into dehydrator overnight.  Next morning, beautiful crisp Injera chips, which I’ve put in cello bags & sealed.

 

Misir wat (red lentils) at front left - I can't remember where I ate this but I wish I could!

For lunch on Saturday we had Injera (freshened in microwave), with the red lentil recipe that I found on Mesnoy’s website.  Yum!  But it was even better cold as a dip that night with Injera chips!!  Then on toast for breakfast yesterday morning!!  The recipe made heaps.  Half of it is in tubs in the freezer ready to have dip & chips again!! 

 

Can’t wait to go back...and take my husband.  Very doable from Swan Hill.  SH train passes through and stops at Footscray at about 10.30 am, then can pick it up again at about 6.45 pm without even having to go into the city!  What a day we’d have...BUT first stop next time will be to buy a shopping jeep...or two!! 

As you can probably tell...I’m still on a high! 

So...a big thank you again for introducing me to the culturally diverse culinary delights of Footscray! 

Thank you so much to Ros from Swan Hill for allowing me to share her delightful email.  She has really touched on everything that makes Footscray amazing.

* What I said re the teff was:  In terms of teff flour - it's not legal for export, so you cannot buy it.  The only exception is Bob's Red Mill which is an American company that produces teff flour (among others - coconut, amaranth etc).  It's available at health food shops and at Sims supermarket in West Footscray.  The catch is that that teff is apparently a poor grade so it's not very nice.  The Ethiopian community here in Melbourne don't use teff - they use combinations of corn, wheat, rice and sorghum flours to approximate the taste.

Ras Dashen

So Ethiopia has thirteen months of sunshine, or so the poster on the wall tells me.  Yet when the winter chill sets in here in Footscray, it's the food from this land of eternal summer that I start craving.

The poster in question is on the wall here at Ras Dashen, just one of Footscray's Ethiopian eateries.  It doesn't look much from the outside - indeed, you might wonder if it's even open, it looks so dark - but I highly encourage you to step in.

We ordered the vegetarian combination which is everything you see (bar the pot in the centre) for a rather staggering $10.  Red and brown lentils, beans, cabbage and carrot...all delicious, albeit rather unusually served room temperature.  In the middle was our order of doro wot ($10), chicken pieces cooked in an intense, deep maroon sauce made with very slow-cooked onion and berbere spice.  It wasn't crazily loaded with chicken pieces, but it's the sauce that gets me going more than anything.

The prices are pretty fabulous.  If you want a good intro, I'd get the veg combo plus number 5 (the Misto - two different mincemeat curries).  Maybe add in a doro wot if you've got three people dining, and a tibs if you've got four.  I like to think of tibs like stir-fries - they're a bit drier than things with "wot" in the name, which tend to be wet and saucy.

You might look at an Ethiopian menu and think it all sounds the same.  I can remember going to a Mexican restaurant in the US for the first time 10+ years ago and reading "tortilla, sauce, cheese...  tortilla, sauce, cheese..."  It all sounded like exactly the same dish reworded 20 times.  Obviously I couldn't have been more wrong.  Keep experimenting, ordering, trying and you'll soon have your favourite dishes locked down.

I do rather love the ginger tea served in many of Footscray's African eateries.  It's super spicy, sweet and delicious.

Like nearby Konjo, Ras Dashen will do traditional Ethiopian coffee without the whole ceremony (other places usually reserve it for large bookings and charge quite a bit of money).  Love that they still serve the jebena (pot) along with the traditional incense.  I've got a post brewing (get it?) about Konjo and Ethiopian coffee, so stay tuned to learn a bit more about this tradition.

And while we're on the subject of bad puns - Ras Dashen.  Dash in!

Ras Dashen

121 Nicholson St, Footscray

Phone: 9687 3293

A taste of east Africa in downtown Footscray

My friends looked after my kids the other day and brought them along to a birthday party at Dinknesh Lucy.  When I picked them up from the restaurant, I asked my eldest, "So, did you like the yummy African food?"  She looked at me and said, "Yes, and actually, Mum, it was Ethiopian food".  Touché.  I guess that's what you get raising kids in Footscray - they have a very keen sense of culture!

If you didn't already know, I run Footscray Food Tours in partnership with the CAE.  I've just begun running one that focuses on Footscray's rich repository of east African food and culture, in which we explore drinks from butter-infused coffee to hibiscus tea, herbal remedies from Sudan and street food from Somalia.  I thought I'd share with you a few snippets from the time I spent researching this tour!

When I was running a tour last weekend, someone asked me beforehand where they could buy coffee beans in Footscray.  The question threw me for a minute as I had to ask, "Roasted or unroasted?"  While coffee is often thought of as brown, shiny roasted beans, in Ethiopia the roasting part is an integral part of preparing coffee and hence they are sold in their light green, unroasted form.

This is Rozenn from one of my favourite spots in Footscray, Konjo Cafe, demonstrating a traditional coffee ceremony.  The green beans in the bowl in her hand are tipped onto the black flat plate which is above a brazier of charcoal and cooked until dark brown and beginning to pop.  They are then ground, placed in a "jebena" (the black pot seen at the bottom left) and brought to the boil.

The resulting coffee is probably closest to plunger coffee and is really good.  It's served black and usually sugar is added.  Rozenn's partner Abdi is from the southern Gurage people, for whom butter is a very important staple food and cultural element.  His tribe drink coffee with butter and salt added!  The butter is not as odd as you might think - it's almost like drinking coffee with cream, as is done in the States.

 

Depending on the season, Rozenn and Abdi might have some rue to add to your brew.  In Western culture this herb is most commonly seen in old "herbals" as an ingredient to some sort of poultice or another, but it is an integral part of the traditional Ethiopian kitchen.  It has a very strong, slightly smoky flavour - give it a try if it's available!

I attended Rozenn and Abdi's inaugural Food and Wine Festival event back in March which explored Ethiopian coffee culture (no, I don't have a posting backlog problem.  No, not at all ;) .  That's Abdi above serving some brilliant tibs (a chunky meat dish).  Konjo have great food and are best known in the community for their kitfo, which is a dish of raw mince mixed with spiced butter and served with plain homemade ricotta-like cheese.  You can have it slightly cooked if you're not game enough to try it 100% raw!

While coffee is Ethiopia's staple drink, its staple food is injera.  This unleavened bread begins as a batter that is fermented overnight (similar to sourdough).  It's then deftly poured onto a griddle in a snail shell shape to cook before being lifted off.  Above, Meftuha is showing us how it's done - she's the owner of Mesnoy, Footscray's oldest injera bakery, so she knows a thing or two.  I often see Mesnoy's delivery van when I'm criss-crossing Melbourne, be it in Clifton Hill or way out on the south-eastern, and always get a tingle of westie pride when I spot it.

But injera isn't just bread - it's cutlery and plate as well!  These lamb tibs were a particularly excellent version.  To eat, rip off a piece of injera, press into the little dish of mitmita (seasoned chilli powder) and grab a saucy chunk of meat.

These tibs were from African Cuisine, just a couple of doors down from Mesnoy and owned by Fasil who is just lovely.  I believe they have live music on Saturday nights.

Injera isn't only consumed in Ethiopia but across the wider east African region, including in Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.  This is suqaar, a chunky lamb dish that is quite similar to tibs.  While here it was served with injera, at other Somali restaurants you might also see it served with spaghetti - a legacy of the failed Italian colonisation of east Africa, perhaps!  (I highly recommend the Somali fare at Safari in Ascot Vale, too.)

You can find this and other Somali dishes at Africa Lounge on Nicholson Street, which is run by the delightful Abdi.  Africa Lounge doesn't keep strict opening hours, so if you do fancy popping in, have a back-up plan - Addis Abeba next door is one of my favourite Ethiopian restaurants anywhere in the 'scray.

Or, take a wander back up Nicholson and try Khartoum Centre for some fantastic Sudanese food.  The menu here is on a big lit-up board behind the counter, and its diversity really speaks to Sudan's geographical position, bordered by Egypt to the north and (pre-South Sudanese independence) DR Congo, Uganda and Kenya to the south.

There are a great spread of chargrilled meats served with breads, salad and dips that have a Middle Eastern feel (see the shaia above - chunky, smoky lamb served with red lentil and yoghurt dips)...  Then there are more "African" dishes like this taglia, a minced meat and dried okra powder stew served between two leaves of injera.  (This dish is served with the injera closed over.  Don't do what we did and sit there staring at it, waiting for the rest of the dish for a good 10 minutes before we finally moved the top layer and realised there was food underneath!  Not my finest moment!)

In the last couple of years, owner Muhammad has expanded next door and recently begun baking his own bread - a delicious cross between pita and Turkish bread.  Here's his dad showing off the new oven!

I hope you've enjoyed this mini tour of Footscray's east African eateries.  My tour was recently featured in Time Out magazine, and you can read more and book via my website, www.laurenwambach.com.  I'll leave you with this amazing Burundian drumming troupe, as seen at Footscray's recent Emerge festival.  They were brilliant - the video doesn't do them justice!

Show-stopping Ethiopian in North Melbourne

Telling someone who lives in Footscray that they know a great Ethiopian restaurant elsewhere in Melbourne is kind of like selling ice to eskimos.  But hey - I like ice.

Little Africa is on Victoria Street in North/West Melbourne, not far from the Vic Market.  It's teeny tiny inside and quite lovely, with interesting bits and bobs decorating the walls and each table set with a tiny red tea light.  I loved the gorgeous young waiter, softly spoken and wearing regulation hipster garb of skinny jeans turned up at the ankles and black plimsolls.

Some frosty beers while we perused the menu.  There are loads of interesting things, all with clear descriptions.  I had my eye on kitfo - "freshly minced lean beaf sauteed with warm clarified butter, mitmita [chilli] and cardamon" or maybe dorho aletcha - "cubes of chicken breast marinated and sauteed with spices, onions and peppers".  But it's still very hard to go past just the straight-up vegetarian combo as a good marker of an Ethiopian joint.

Veg combo, $20 for one, $35 for two (each additional person $18)

WHOA - did I say marker?  I meant goalpost.  As in, sailed right through.  Yes, I know it makes no sense.  But look at those colours and textures!  The chef (mum?) brought out this huge platter covered with a big sombrero-like woven cloche.  So from the 6 o'clock possie we have dubba - pumpkin cooked until collapsing in berbere spice.  Sweet, rich, oh so divine.  Heading left, I loved these simple veg, cooked very lightly in a little garlic and still with so much freshness, colour and flavour.  What a fresh, modern touch.  Then brown lentils, cooked with berbere, earthy and just perfect.

So to the left of the lentils is fool - dried broad beans cooked down with tomatoes, chillis and onions for a warm cumin-rich treat.  Then, still heading left, my fave and something not all too often seen - shiro, powdered dried chickpeas cooked with berbere for a silky smooth, rich, seductive paste.  Then finally cabbage and carrots cooked in garlic, ginger and turmeric.  The cabbage, like the veg, was left chunky in leaves - I think I prefer it a bit more shredded.  But oh boy, the flavours, I tell you!!!  They were all brought together by lemony, super-fresh salad in the middle.  This was seriously incredible East African food.

We ate to our heart's content and then we ate some more...and some more, and suddenly our "dinner and a few beers" looked like it might be more like "one beer and stagger home, protuberant stomach first".  We managed to waddle the few doors to Prudence where we groaned in painful satisfaction and sipped icy beer very slowly.

As we sat, the lovely young man from Little Africa entered again and again with more giant trays with peaked, woven covers that emitted smells that still tantalised, despite our stuffed state.  Turns out the good citizens of North Melbourne have cottoned on to this most excellent idea, and are taking it up with gusto.

This is East African fare worth travelling for.  RUN DON'T WALK!



PS:  I would book.  They are already pretty busy!  If they're full, you can always "order in" at Prudence!
PPS:  I am pretty sure they have rice!  (I heard someone ordering it.)

Little Africa
358 Victoria Street, North Melbourne
Phone:  9329 8018

Hours:  Tues-Sun 5-10pm

Moroccan-style fare at Shebelle

Aren't we just utterly spoilt for choice when it comes to Ethiopian food in Footscray?  Each restaurant has its own special edge - African Town do amazing lega tibs with lamb and green chillies cooked in butter, while Mulu at Dinknesh Lucy makes all her injera in house.  Shebelle has struck out by offering not only Ethiopian dishes but a selection of Moroccan-inspired plates too!

Harissa chicken, $15

This Moroccan-style harissa chicken was delicious.  Chicken breast, usually hard to get right, was perfectly cooked in a rich, spicy gravy with chilli, slow-cooked, melty red onion, thyme and parsley.

Gomen, $12

This gomen (spinach/silverbeet) was good, with garlic, onion and cooked green chilli.  The menu is much more diverse then your average Ethiopian place, with traditional yet unusual dishes like Ethiopian pumpkin augmented by North African tastes, like Moroccan-style guacamole with avocado and tahini.  Recommended for next time was the Musacca, a "combination of vegetables cooked with different herbs", and the Moroccan fish.

The bread was really good, delicate yet pliable.  If you look closely, you can see the "rings" that are a hallmark of how injera is made - poured onto a griddle in a gentle snail-shell pattern.  See how it's made at Kenny of Consider the Sauce's wonderful post about Footscray's Lemat Injera Bakery.

It's very casual here - the bar is incredibly well stocked, but there wasn't any change for a $42 bill out of a $50 note.  However, they take card which is an enormous plus.  It may not seem very restaurant-y when you walk in, as there aren't napkin holders or salt and pepper on the tables, and the service is really family style.  If that won't bother you though, you're in for a pan-northern African treat.



Shebelle
241 Barkly Street, Footscray
Phone:  9689 8188
Hours:  Lunch and dinner 7 days


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Addis Abeba

With the exception of the fabulous, boundary-bending African Taste, the Ethiopian restaurants of Footscray tend to toe the line of their traditional cuisine.  The differences and variations are still there, but rather than the brash contrast of primary colours, the differences you note are subtle, like the gradations of red in the sky of a shepherd's-delight summer night.

I like many for different reasons but a firm favourite is Addis Abeba.  It's owned and run by Bitsat and Tesfaye, an Ethiopian celebrity couple of sorts - she's a famous traditional singer and he is an actor, writer and director.  The interior of the restaurant is homely and warm, the dusky scent of frankincense hanging thick in the air.

Vegetarian combination, $12

I can never go past the veg combo.  This is served the traditional way, heaped directly onto the injera on a colourful platter.  From 12 o'clock, soft yellow lentils; meltingly soft cabbage; Bitsat's own creation, potato with berbere; rich red lentils with berbere spice (my favourite); potato and carrot, yellow with turmeric; and nutty, toothsome brown lentils.  If you have room, spring for the salad which is really delicious with a lemony dressing.

Special tibs, $12

Special tibs are so good - tiny pieces of very tender lamb, cooked with onion in butter and scattered with green chillis for crunch and punch.  The doro wat is amazing too.  This celebration dish of chicken and eggs cooked in deep red berbere spice is only available here on weekends and Addis Abeba's is my favourite version anywhere in Footscray.  Bitsat explains the onions must be stirred continously for hours or they catch and create a burnt flavour.  This is the only version I've tried that doesn't have just a hint of slightly bitter charred onion.

Plenty of injera for pinching up each greedy mouthful.  I also love the injera on the bottom of the platter which has soaked up all the juices.

Addis Abeba very kindly hosted us for the photo shoot for this article.  Bitsat is gorgeous - the journalist told me he didn't like African food but with cheeky persistence she wouldn't let him leave until he ate at least one bite, explaining that in Ethiopian culture if you don't eat someone's food, it's a grave insult.  Trust me - you can't stop at one bite, and the only insult will be the way you bump both sides of the doorway as you stagger out, newly rotund but oh so delightfully stuffed.

Check Addis Abeba out in Epicure.  Thanks for the lovely company, Lauren of Corridor Kitchen!



Addis Abeba
220 Nicholson Street, Footscray (n.b. not Addis Cafe which somewhat confusingly is next door)
Phone:  9687 4363
Hours:  Lunch and dinner daily


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Dinknesh Lucy

Winter is on its way.  Juicy steaks on the grill give way to luscious braised chunks of chuck steak.  There's nothing more pleasurable on a cold day than coming home to a house filled with the scent of chilli or pot roast emanating from the trusty slow cooker.  Roasted pumpkin is such a pleasure too, the taste of autumn itself - rich, sweet and slightly musty, like piles of autumn leaves.

Ethiopian food is brilliant for cold weather in my opinion.  I'm yet to find a "bad" Ethiopian restaurant in Footscray - they all have their charms.  Dinknesh Lucy, next to Lentil as Anything on Barkly Street, is named after one of the earliest hominids ever found, unearthed in modern-day Ethiopia.

Here's the little dais dedicated to the coffee ceremony which you can book ahead.  The green beans are pan-roasted before being ground, brewed and served.  You can see/buy the green beans at Blue Peak Coffee and Nuts, next to Coles in Footscray Plaza.

My understanding of Ethiopian food is rudimentary at best but it can be vaguely divided into wet stews (wot are spicy, alicha are mild) and tibs dishes which are drier, like stir-fries.  B and I couldn't decide between the yebeg tibes and the zil zil tibes.  We asked the lady and she immediately said, "Yebeg tibes.  Zil zil tibes, you might not like."  So naturally we wanted the zil zil!

Zil zil tibes, $12

I have had yebeg tibes before and it is great - juicy lamb pieces dry-fried in clarified butter with onion and green chilli.  Apparently the zil zil is partly dried meat - the pieces were long "steaks" that had been cut to open somewhat like paper dolls in a long zigzag.  The flavour was fantastic, rich, aged, complemented by the tang of the onions and green chilli and with a fabulous charred flavour.  The meat was so tender too yet hardened as it cooled, which is not a criticism - evidently the heat must "wake up" the fibres somehow and it kind of re-dries as it cools down again.  Really fantastic - definitely one to order again.

Lucy Combination, $15

The chef's combination is always a safe bet in any Ethiopian restaurant.  This didn't follow the exact dishes on the menu, which I didn't mind in the slightest.  Starting from the bottom left-hand corner is "sugo" which is a meat stew not on the menu - rich and tomatoey.  Going clockwise, bozena shiro, chickpea flour with beef pieces and berbere (tasty but quite salty), alicha wat, lamb pieces in a mild sauce with garlic and ginger (divine!) and in the middle, key wot, lamb pieces again with ginger, garlic and the addition of paprika-rich red berbere spice.  On the right lay magenta beetroot and potato and turmeric-yellow potatoes, carrots and cabbage.  All very individual, totally yummy, rich but not overpoweringly so.

Injera, Ethiopia's national bread, made by fermenting flour and then cooking on one side like a pancake - see Kenny's recent visit to Footscray's Lemat Bakery to see how.  Just tear off pieces and pinch up the meat or vegies, like pita bread.  My kids love it and I am happy to let them eat nothing but bread and save all the rest for myself!  Eventually they get curious and ask to taste a bit of yours.  This goes for rice at Asian restaurants or roti at Indian restaurants - it doesn't matter if they won't eat the whole spread, just start them off with the basics and you can build on it.  Or not and leave it all to yourself, heh heh.

Love this place - we did not need both dishes; one would have sufficed and fed both of us for $12 or $15.  That night we were served by three gorgeous women who had such snappy panache.  Don't let the empty chairs fool you, it was relatively busy when we arrived.  Dinknesh Lucy do live traditional music about once a month - give them a call to find out when the next night is on.  Worth the walk, even on a wintery night.

Dinknesh Lucy

227 Barkly Street, Footscray (map)

Phone:  9687 6444

Hours:  7 days 11am - 11pm

Wheelchair Access
Level entry