Shangri-La Restaurant

Today we took some of the local staff out to lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant named Shangri-La. These days, a lot of Ethiopians are doing a two-week fast (Christians, mainly, although Muslims are now in the midst of Ramadan), so they only eat or drink after 12 (those who adhere strictly wait until 3). During this time they are not taking any meat (nor alcohol, tobacco, etc), but recently the Church said that fish is permissible if people so choose. Since most of the guys ordered fish or pasta, I decided to also have fish and ordered asa goulash, which is chunks of boneless Nile perch lightly breaded and roasted, and covered in a sauce of tomato, onion, green pepper and a dash of berber spice. The other guys had asa kotalit (a fish fry) and dishes of spaghetti, along with a few bottles of Pepsi or lemon-lime Mirinda. The food was great, but everyone was looking forward to the coffee afterward, since they said Shangri-La makes some of the best coffee in town. Later, the waiter puts a dish of etan incense on the table--traditional when serving coffee in Ethiopia--and then serves the cups of "black gold". Indeed, it was coffee fit for a place named after paradise.