I believe food reflects a culture just as much as its religion or language.  Tradition, landscape, climate and history all play a part in creating what is known as a culture’s ethnic food. Most of the holidays I celebrate revolve around some food tradition.  A giant roast turkey that has been cooking for hours, cream cheese and fruit blintzes made from scratch on Christmas morning or creamy deviled eggs for Easter.

In a couple days it will be the beginning of Ramadan. Though I don’t celebrate Ramadan, I am fascinated by the traditional dishes as well as the important role that food plays during this time. Gathering with family and friends after fasting from sun up to sun down, I can only imagine how delicious the food must taste.

Planning ahead for Ramadan? Here area a couple ideas taken from our online vault of recipes.

Some other great links to blogger’s Ramadan recipes:

Chef Zadi

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I’ve never been to Africa, much less Ethiopia, but Ethiopian cuisine is one of my favorites. The only thing that many Americans only know about Ethiopia, is that it had terrible famine in the 1980s, when more 1 million people starved. Sadly, Ethiopia has been described as “chronically food insecure” by world hunger experts. Despite it’s food shortages, Ethiopia has one of the world’s oldest and richest culinary traditions. Served family style, on a huge sour-dough pancake-like bread called Injera, diners in Ethiopian restaurants typically eat with their hands scooping up bits of 5-10 different preparations with the injera. I love the mix of spiced stews and curries, featuring both meat and wonderful vegetarian dishes. Another interesting part of the dining experience is Tej, which is a flavored honey wine, that can be either sweet or dry.

America has several Ethiopian communities that feature excellent restaurants, which also tend to be a great value. In Washington, D.C., there’s an enclave in the Adams-Morgan district and Los Angeles has it’s own “Little Ethiopia.” The Fillmore district in San Francisco has a couple of nice places, including a personal favorite, Rasselas, which is also a Jazz club.

Beyond the food, I find the people, culture and history of Northeast Africa very interesting; though admittedly my exposure has been limited. Despite the difficulties in traveling there, some day I’m going to visit Ethiopia and possibly it’s embattled neighbor Eritrea. Here’s my vlog post from the restaurant Merkato:

For more, check out this post on the Fat Free Vegan blog. Here’s a good resource for finding a restaurant near you: http://www.ethiopianrestaurant.com. And finally, “The Watch Woman” has a number of good recipes.

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