Axum a refreshing oasis of good taste

John Lehndorff, News Dining Critic

Published May 10, 2002 at midnight

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Maybe the reason we felt so giddy after dining at Axum Ethiopian Restaurant is that we got to play with our food all night. Our inner children were amused by the absence of eating utensils and dinner plates. Maybe it was the adventure of tasting fare that was refreshingly exotic and relentlessly flavorful.

For the uninitiated, Ethiopian restaurant dining requires a primer. The literal foundation of every Ethiopian meal is injera bread. The diverse meat and vegetable preparations you choose are served together atop a big round platter lined with the thin, soft, spongey, bubbly, and pliable injera, a panfried cross between a flatbread and a thick crepe. At Axum, lots of additional rolled-up round breads are served throughout the meal. Injera has a slight tartness and sourdough rye aroma.

Guests around the table tear off a piece of injera and use it to wrap a mouthful of the desired dish to pop in their mouths. The bread, not your fingers, touches the food. It's a wonderfully interactive experience but may require some adjustment for those who feel possessive about their entrees.

Speaking of entrees, there is really only one "course" per se. There are no separate appetizers or soups listed, and the salad arrives on the injera-lined main platter. Every meal comes with "seasonal vegetables," plus a simple lettuce, tomato and onion salad with olive oil.

The seasonal vegetables were tender potatoes tossed with sweet carrots and green beans in a pot roast-like gravy. This comfy combination proved the perfect foil to some of the other highly spiced dishes.

The spicing formula in Ethiopian food manages to zing every taste bud (including a few you didn't know you had), but it is not served painfully hot unless you ask for it that way. Ethiopian Tabasco-like fermented hot sauce that would sizzle most hotheads also is available.

Then menu offers about 20 stew-like preparations utilizing quite distinct simmered sauces. On our first visit we immediately developed a fondness for kitfo ($8.50). Lean, finely chopped beef is cooked with niter kebbeh, mitmita and served with housemade mild farmer's cheese. The spicy butter is a critical component of Ethiopian cookery. Garlic, onions and spices are cooked in clarified butter until it takes on a wonderfully nutty flavor. Mitmita is a complex mixture of herbs and spices with a definite chile kick. Despite all that seasoning, the dish has a mild appeal.

One easy way to dip your palate in this cuisine is to order the two combination choices. The No. 6 ($8.50) offers substantial portions of three meat dishes (also available as individual entrees). Ziggni key watt ($7.50) features a friendly blend of minced beef in milder berbere sauce that has a hint of sweetness. Think of it as an Ethiopian Sloppy Joe. Doro watt ($6.95) is a chicken leg with meat falling off the bone cooked in hot, spicy berbere sauce topped with a hard-boiled egg half. The egg was an unexpected pleasure amid the brick-red sauce offering hints of garlic, cardamom, pepper and fenugreek. Less appealing was ye-beg alicha ($7.95) with "lamby"-tasting lamb cubes in a less-than-captivating curry sauce.

No. 12's ($7.50) three complementary vegetable preparations include temtmo yemissir watt ($6.95), a thick, spicy red lentil stew; kik alicha ($6.95), mild split yellow peas; and ye-gomen alicha ($6.95), chopped mustard greens with a significantly bitter edge.

The musical-sounding tibsy fitfit ($7.50) is an only-in-Ethiopia creation featuring pieces of injera simmered in hot tibsy beef sauce. The bread becomes a sort of spongy dumpling. Ditto for the similar zigni fitft ($7.50) and alicha fitfit ($7.95).

On a second visit I ordered bamia okra ($7.50) even though, as I've previously admitted, okra is not one of my Top 10 favorite vegetables . . . maybe not even Top 40. I have a low tolerance for mucilaginous produce. The young okra in this dish was anything but slimy, crisp like fresh peppers, and sauteed with tomatoes and onions in a relatively mild sauce with just a smattering of chicken pieces. I really liked it. The equally delightful yebeg tibs ($7.95) incorporated tender lamb chunks, rich browned butter, and jalapeno pepper strips. For weekday lunches, Axum offers a smaller veggie or meat combo plate ($5.95).

As the meal reaches conclusion you finally get down to what our waiter confided was "the best part." The injera bread that lined the platter is imbued, infused and drenched in a mix of juices, sauces and spicy butter.

Beer goes great with this food but I highly recommend the mies tej, a simple honey wine produced at the restaurant. The non-vintage peach-colored liquid still has a hint of yeasty aroma and a touch of fizz on the tongue. Not as syrupy sweet as its cousin mead, honey wine is a refreshing palate cleanser. Another change-of-pace choice is Axum's house iced tea laced with so much clove your cheeks pucker up. The beverage list includes a full bar, limited wine list and light fruit smoothies.

Although dessert is not served, don't forget coffee, served traditional style or in espresso drinks all made with prized Ethiopian harrar beans. Ethiopian-style coffee is thick, black and sweet and sipped from small cups. Some evidence exists that coffee originated in the highlands of Kaffa in Ethiopia. The eatery is named after the ancient city of Axum, site of a 2nd century B.C. kingdom that ruled most of present day Ethiopia.

All of my dinner guests -- including an inveterate foodie and classically trained chef -- were amazed and gratified by the sophisticated aromas and tastes and the good-humored graciousness of the waiters as we bombarded them with questions. We were pleased to see tables packed with families, friends and members of Denver's large Ethiopian population. For them as well as us, Axum is a refreshing oasis of good taste and community on East Colfax Avenue.

Contact John Lehndorff at (303) 892-5103 or lehndorffj@RockyMountainNews.com.

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