A whirlwind of flavours whipping across the palate
Mark Laba
Province
Nyala owner Assefa Kebede at the new location. JASON PAYNE— THE PROVINCE
I’ve always believed cutlery is overrated. We’ve lost the childish joy of sinking our fingers into our food to experience the pure visceral pleasures of gravy dripping off our elbows. The only adult demand I would make for this style of eating is refraining from throwing the stuff at the ceiling.
So it was with great anticipation that I was looking forward to joining The Brain and his gal, Divine Miss D., for a little soiree at this African eatery where we could let our fingers do the walking through our entrees.
A long-time fixture on West 4th, Nyala has relocated to Main Street and the red and gold walls and two large carved giraffes in the centre of the room evoke a simmering sunset on the African savannah.
Dinner begins with hot towels brought to the table so that everyone’s hands are clean before they go dipping them into the edibles. There are forks, though, for who don’t wish to risk trapping hot sauce beneath their pinkie ring.
“I wonder what the etiquette is on double-dipping?” I asked.
“About the equivalent of just face-planting into the food,” The Brain suggested.
The menu wanders the African continent but there’s a definite Ethiopian connection due to the spicing and recipes. We began with a large appetizer platter ($16.95) that included hummus, veggie pakoras, deep-fried and battered spicy squid and pita. The hummus was especially good — reddish pools of hot sauce gathering in the chickpea peaks and valleys. Squid were tender and the spicy hot sauce and mango chutney dippers added a little sweetness and zing to everything. A mound of cool lentils were piled in a corner of the plate and I proclaimed, “Mmm, good barley.”
“Those are lentils,” Miss Divine informed me. “How did you get this job again?”
For entrees Miss D. took on the yesega watt ($14), a beef stew brooding in red pepper, spiced butter, garlic and ginger. I tried the yedoro infille ($14.50), a chicken shlimazel spiked with Nyala’s very own hot- sauce concoction, and The Brain had the shrimp watt ($15.50), another tastebud blazer lathered in red pepper sauce and finished with onion and green pepper. All three dishes were then ladled on top a communal plate of injera bread and more injera was supplied on the side for tearing up and using like spongey pincers to grasp the food.
A word about injera bread. Its spongey texture seems to expand in the belly and we were soon stuffed before we even made a dent in the huge portions. A side order of lentil sambussa ($4 or $4.50 for beef), a variation on the samosa, didn’t help but they were excellent. Our entrees were just as tasty, a whirlwind of flavours whipping across the palate and feeding the brushfire of spices.
Look for dishes like yedoro tibs, a chicken dish mixed with awaze, a red chili paste; kitfo, an Ethiopian version of steak tartare with fiery mitmita, a red chili powder, or yeshimbera asa, chickpea-flour cakes with the complexly spiced berbere sauce.
“Y’know,” Miss D. said. “My parents were hippies and I’m used to not having cutlery, whether by design or just lack of money. This brings back memories but the food is way better than flax-seed lasagna.”
NYALA
Where: 4148 Main St., Vancouver
Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-876-9919
Drinks: Fully licensed.
Hours: 5:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, closed Monday
© The Vancouver Province 2006
