NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Ethiopia is the birthplace of all humanity. It’s estimated that around 200,000 years ago, homo sapiens appeared and spread across the planet.
Prince Lobo, a resident in New Orleans, Louisiana recently took a pilgrimage to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Prince’s culture is uniquely African. His mother is from East Africa, his father is from West Africa and Prince was raised in the Southern United States. His goal is to eventually take intimate groups of people to visit the motherland continent of Africa.
“When we are thinking about Ethiopia, I want everyone, specifically melanin-rich people of African descent to think of this place as home. Ethiopia is home,” says Prince.
Prince is also the Front of House Manager at Addis NOLA, a restaurant vibrant in both color and flavor. Addis brings Ethiopian flavor to a region with few African restaurants and even fewer East African restaurants. So far it is generating quite a buzz of patronage from hungry locals in the Crescent City.
“It is really exciting introducing food-lovers to my culture. Hopefully they are curious and want to try something that is new to them and old the world,” says Prince.
Biruk Alemayehu is the owner and founder of Addis NOLA and also the matriarch or Prince Lobo’s family. Alemayehu grew up in Ethiopia and has since traveled around the world. She got the idea of introducing locals to her native cuisine when she was still an educator at the historically black, Southern University in New Orleans.
“I love Ethiopian food because it’s something you can share with friends and family. It is something you can sit down at the table and talk about your issues, problems and then find solutions while you enjoy the meal. I was in education for so many years. Most of the time, what I found was that many of our people didn’t understand other cultures. Through the meal, I felt like I was able to teach diversity,” says Alemayehu.
Diversity is formula of flavor New Orleans tastes regularly. It is what makes creole food distinct. Addis NOLA’s cuisine diversity translates well and effectively to expose delicious similarities between cultures.
“Our Ethiopian main spice is Berbere. Berbere is like Tony Chachere’s times a thousand! It’s mainly cayenne, paprika, allspice, ginger, garlic, fenugreek, coriander and cumin. Every Ethiopian household has a version of it,” says Prince.
Like the concept of West African gumbo, much of Ethiopia’s food is designed with a communal spirit of sharing. There are many beautiful dishes, spices and drinks offered within the restaurant. Tej is a ferminted honey libation that is similar to mead; it sweetens up the pallet and lightens up the mood.
While many West African, Caribbean and South American countries couple their food with starches such as cassava, plantains and rice; the typical starch of Ethiopia is a sourdough flatbread called ingera. Ingera takes about three days to make and is composed of a grain that is illegal to import raw to the United States. Ingera is the perfect vehicle for the many traditional stewed dishes of Ethiopia.
“You make baby tacos, by ripping off a piece of the ingera sourdough crepe and using three fingers to pinch and have this morsel of food. With this morsel of food, we will extend a favor of love, by feeding the one you care about the most and that is called a Gursha! We always Gursha twice,” says Prince.
One of the acclaimed offerings of Addis NOLA is it’s coffee service ceremony. Ethiopia the native origin of coffee. For Ethiopians, coffee is not just a mundane Keurig experience, but an entire process of preparation that includes, table roasting the beans.
With a wide array of food, including accessible vegetarian options, Addis NOLA wants all patrons to fall in love with a brand new experience and be more willing to try the many unique cultures that comprise humanity.
Prince is a maestro of words and sums of the Addis NOLA experience saying, “that is really where the name of the restaurant comes from. Addis means new. It’s also the capital city of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa is the full capital name that means new flower. When you say Addis and then NOLA, you are saying New, New Orleans!”