Comments on: Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Restaurant

By: Foodeater

Foodeater — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:51:23 +0000

Sloppy good food and plenty of laughing is very romantic!

By: Lane

Lane — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:00:22 +0000

Hi June,
Wow, how fun about your mom and step-dad actually doing work for the Smithsonian.
(sorry I missed your comment, it was stuck in spam – I guess because of the link).
Jane and I were at the Postal History exhibit about 9 years ago. We got one of those fake postcards for tourists. I wonder if she has it stashed away somewhere (I don’t know where anything is in our home).

By: Lane

Lane — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:35:19 +0000

Hi FoodEater,

Romantic date? Ours certainly wasn’t. We were continually laughing at each other — for dropping food on ourselves. I’m not sure the rest of the world would be as uncoordinated, but as we walked out of the restaurant, Jane had a big glob of orange on her bright pink shirt, and I had a few small drips of varying colors standing out on my clothing as well.
Thankfully, we have tons of stain remover in the house!

By: Foodeater

Foodeater — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:57:10 +0000

Oh man… this is one of my favorite restaurants in all of L.A! If only I had someone to take me on a romantic date there I’d be one happy camper!

The food is so great and the portions so generous, and I love the big glowing neon VEGAN CUISINE sign in the window… so welcoming to a hungry vegan coming in out of the cold I also love that they make tasty packaged version of their food to sell at some of the local markets. I’ve got a blog entry I’m planning to write soon about their delicious injera roll-ups.

For what it’s worth, I’m a lefty and no one there batted an eye. These folks know they’re not in Ethiopia anymore so it’s not really an issue. I’m pretty sure they are more interested in making money and pleasing their customers than they are about wanting to enforce a culture from another time and place upon them. So dig in lefties and let yer freak flag fly!

By: june

june — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:08:38 +0000

Yeah I actually grew up outside of DC, so I have been to some of the Ethiopian places in the DC area. …not in a very long time though!

I’m also very familiar with the Museums. My mom and step dad were actually model makers for the Smithsonian. My step made many of the little train, ship and airplane models. My mom made many of the mannequin’s and other objects found in the exhibits. In fact you can still see my step dad on the stage coach in the postal history museum. My mom and I also appeared as mannequins in exhibits that ended long ago.

Speaking of Ethiopian Food and the Smithsonian , I believe there will be an exhibit about Selassie there soon. A quick google gave me this link:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/discover-rastafari-200801.html

By: Lane

Lane — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:42:08 +0000

It was wonderful.
But you don’t have to come all the way to LA. D.C. also has some pretty good Ethiopian… and it’s a lot closer to where you are. Plus you get to take in all those museums…

By: june

june — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:18:04 +0000

Wow! This sounds great. I love ethiopian food. Asheville is lacking any type of Ethiopian restaurant, let alone a vegan one. Too bad I don’t have a reason to go to LA.

By: Lane

Lane — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:03:03 +0000

Hi Sue,
If you were in Ethiopia and ate left handed, I think that would probably be an issue. Since you’d be trying it here, where our cultural norms are different, I cannot imagine it would be a problem.
I recently used a left handed mouse, so I can relate. Wow it’s tough!
If you’re really concerned, you could mention it to your server and see what s/he thinks.

By: Sue H

Sue H — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:55:17 +0000

I’ve never tried Ethiopian food, I had heard it was meat-intensive so avoided it. But this sounds fun…do you think it would be terribly insulting to eat left-handed? I can manage a fork right-handed if I have to, but that bread thing might be a problem.