Desta Ethiopian Kitchen

Although I don't see much mention of it, Atlanta seems to have a very large Ethiopian population. One piece of evidence is the amazing variety of Ethiopian restaurants. They're all over town, but the corner of Clairmont and Briarcliff alone has four of them. This intersection is at the Clairmont exit of I-85, so it's very easy to reach if you have a hankering for Ethiopian cuisine.

Today's lunch was at Desta Ethiopian Kitchen, located at that very intersection. The decor is modern---tables and chairs rather than the traditional pillows, jazz playing on the sound system. Desta is open all day, from breakfast through late-night drinks.

I started off with a house salad. It looked like a typical salad, but the dressing was a light oil and lemon with a good dose of salt, which was a welcome variation.

My main course was the veggie combo. The presentation was striking---six dishes on a white rectangular plate. The dish had three sets of hot and cold dishes. The hot items were served on traditional Ethiopian bread while the cold dishes were not. The hot/cold alternation was particularly striking given the hot peppers used in Ethiopian food. The dishes were hot but not overwhelmingly so. The hottest one was a half of a pepper stuffed with tomato bits. That got my attention but it wasn't too much.

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