Meskerem - A First Taste

On Sunday evening, I met some friends for dinner at Meskerem for some Ethiopian food. Meskerem just happens to be right around the corner from my fav Ethiopian restaurant, Desta.

Meskerem is a traditional Ethiopian restaurant in style, as there are a few mesobs throughout the restaurant. You are also able to order your meal family-style, where all the orders are placed on one platter of enjera and each diner is able to try all the dishes. We decided to go with individual plates.

I chose to order my usual - the veggie combo.

Various wots and gomen

I'm just going to go ahead and put it out there - the veggie dish at Meskerem, while good, doesn't quite compare to Desta's veggie bliss. I'm not sure if I can put my finger on it exactly. I want to say that Desta's wots are a little creamier and not as thick as Meskerem. But, I can't decide if that is the whole story.

C-Dub branched out and got their Shrimp Wot.

Shrimp wot in the foreground, shrimp tibs in the background

C-Dub was a little disappointed with the size of the shrimp - he thought they were krill but I'm pretty sure krill are a lot smaller. I really enjoyed his dish. It was something different than what I've seen in other Ethiopian restaurants and I liked that the "shrimp" were on the smaller side. (I sometimes get a little skeeved when I eat shrimp. So, the smaller, the better!)

His dish came with two spicy condiments - one made out of jalapenos and the other was a red pepper sauce. The jalapeno sauce was the one that he - and pretty much everyone else at our table - loved and wished there was more of.

A bountiful basket of enjera

So, Meskerem was good. But my first visit there can't beat the reigning Ethiopian champ, Desta. It probably doesn't help that Meskerem is right around the corner from Desta. I mean, you can almost smell the fish tibs in the air.

Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant
2781 Clairmont Road
Atlanta, GA 30329
404.417.0991
www.meskerematlanta.com

Delicious Destination

So, lately I've been relying on my brain to remember when I have made plans for anything outside of work and it hasn't really been working out. I've double booked myself quite a few times or completely forgotten I had an appointment scheduled at all. You might be saying to yourself, "Molly, don't you have some sort of calendar you put this information into?" and I do! I actually put everything into my work Outlook calendar. But, for some reason, I think I've got it memorized and just don't refer to it.

Which brings me to this past weekend. I had some plans (or so I thought) to meet some friends of mine at a restaurant at 7pm on Sunday. C-Dub and I showed up dutifully at 7:15pm. But, when we walked into the restaurant, there was not a familiar face in the joint. As we sat down to wait, I said to C-Dub's annoyed face, "Maybe dinner was actually at 7:30pm?" I pulled out my blackberry to find that I was off by one week. Oh my!

Luckily, we happened to be just around the corner from our favorite Ethiopian restaurant, Desta!

Desta isn't like a traditional Ethiopian cafe; it puts a modern spin on Ethiopion food by serving each order on individual plates. Another thing that makes Desta different is that since it started out as take-out only, the prep their food in advance. So, you eat fairly quickly after you place the order. (Unlike a traditional Ethiopian restaurant, where food isn't prepped and a meal can take 30 minutes to be served.)

But the most important thing that makes Desta stand out is the food - it is awesome. It is so yummy, I was addicted to it for a while. My favorite dish is the veggie combo. It usually comes with miser wot (lentil stew), aterkik wot (split bean stew), gomen wat (collard greens), and a salad.

Mmm...veggie combo!
(From the upper lefthand side going clockwise: gomen, shiro, salad, aterkik wot, and firfir)

C-Dub's favorite dish at Desta is their fish tibs, which is some sort of white fish (maybe talapia?) that is sauteed and served with a salad on the side.

C-Dub's precious fish tibs

One of the coolest things about Desta is that they actually serve 100% teff grain enjera. (If you're not familiar with enjera; it is the kind of Ethiopian bread you use as a utensil.) Suprisingly, many Atlanta Ethiopian restaurants serve enjera that is a mix of teff grain and wheat flour. For people who have wheat allergies, this is a great place to go and enjoy a meal in it's entirety. (Be sure to call ahead and make sure they have 100% teff enjera before you go, as they only make a certain amount each week.)

A platter of enjera

It seems like every time we eat at Desta, they have made some sort of improvement to the dining room or decor. For example, this past time we went, the dining room was spruced up a little, additional seating was added, and an outdoor patio built on to the side. Our favorite waiter even informed us that we could bring our dog and eat outside on the patio with her!

You can see the dining room and bar over C-Dub's shoulder.

The loverly, dog-friendly patio.

Desta Ethiopian Kitchen

3086 Briarcliff Road
Atlanta, GA 30329
404.929.0011
www.destaethiopiankitchen.com