Ethiopia: Eating Ethiopian Kurt
Everybody who traveled to Ethiopia remembers try tibs (toasted beef or lamb pieces) with injera bread (spongy rolls of pancake that later swell inside of your stomach). But driving across the agriculture-rich highlands, I came across a truly Ethiopia specialty – kurt. Kurt is absolutely raw beef meat cut from the choosiest pieces of only bull meat. The bull needs to have been killed the same morning and never ever frozen. The meat is knife-cut into rather large pieces and served with a spicy dipping sauce or pepper and garlic and Ethiopia spices. Supposedly, Ethiopians eat so much raw meat because during the days of war, they preferred not to burn fires so as to not identify themselves to the enemy. Whatever the reason, kurt is like beef tartar on steroids – as raw and primal as it possibly can be! If you are a vegetarian – please don’t unfriend me over this post!
