Dukem

Dukem  [Doo-kum] is an Ethiopian restaurant in a section of Danforth Village that has seen a large group of Ethiopian residents and shops in recent years.

It is probably the perfect place to take friends or family to since it has a fancier atmosphere than a burger joint or some rich people snobfest with unpronounceable French dishes [I swear, I can pronounce Korean better than French] that are just there to show how much cash you can spend on useless junk.  Which brings me to the fact that while not necessarily cheap, Dukem’s doesn’t charge nearly as much as they could.

The Ruins at Gondar, Ethiopia (source: Wikipedia)

The food clearly comes from a rich culture, and that is the definition of Ethiopia, it is one of the African countries that has built huge cities and empires thousands of years ago. And it comes in a huge, elegant smorgasbord of colours, ranging from lentils to moist, tender meats and salads. For those of you who don’t know where the silverware is, well, there is none.

Injera, instead of a knife and fork

Ethiopian food is eaten with injera [in-jeer-ra], a spongy bread, that is used to scoop up the food, that’s why I’ve developed the culturally inaccurate habit of eating butter chicken using the naan as injera, I wonder how crazy the Indian servers think North Americans are when they see that [probably the equivalent of Star Trek characters using public transportation].

Anyway, Dukem’s food is just plain splendid, one can not complain about it without the need for a CAT scan. The service is quite polite [haha I made a stupid rhyme] and the waiter has learned that our Canadian family can’t open the fancy water bottle, or that there’s a trick we can’t master, and the ambience is pleasant.

Clearly not rocket science, but we can never figure out how to open this

Also, it is clearly popular with the Ethiopians, as well as everyone else, so it is definitely actually Ethiopian food instead something Americanized [like pizza, hot dogs, dumplings, television, cars, computers, governments, ideas and thoughts, and the rest of the world]. Whenever my family goes there, we order a vegetable platter, with some meats with it: those are the Dukem Kitfo, and the Awazi Tibs.

Their Vegetarian Combo with our Awaze Tibs and Dukem Kitfo added to the platter

Note Un [practicing french]: the way we order, while delicious, will require food to be taken home or a large amount of people to finish, but it will get eaten quickly I can promise that.

Delicious Kitfo (which we always order medium) – as in rare, medium, well done

Note Deux: some peppers are mild bell peppers, while others are probably the equivalent of a scotch bonnet or jalapeno only the spice is like mustard for your tongue; TAKES A LONG TIME TO COME OFF WITH SEVERAL WASHES.

My mom’s absolute favorite – Yesimer Wot

Stay healthy while eating a lot! I think I need a quicker goodbye!

Dukem 950 Danforth Avenue