End of Silence

Reading the reviews on Yelp, it’s pretty clear that there’s no middle ground on Ethiopian food. It seems you either like it or you don’t, especially injera bread, the spongy, slightly sour bread you use if you don’t want to use your hands to eat. I thought some of the reviews there were pretty ignorant and obnoxious, something you *never* see in Internet comments.

I first tried Aster’s as a lunch takeout option from Whole Foods, but ever since the restaurant at 26th and I-35 opened, I’ve been wanting to go check it out. My introduction to Ethiopian food was at a restaurant in Washington DC about 8 years ago with an old college friend of my wife’s. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the place, but I enjoyed it. If you’ve never had it, Ethiopian food is a little like Indian food, but different enough to make it a nice alternative.

The decor of the restaurant is pretty spartan, but the place is inviting. It’s not very big, roughly 10-12 tables. The patio looks like it nearly doubles the capacity though it was too cold last night to eat out there. We ordered three meat dishes for three adults and two kids and had plenty of food. Each meat dish includes smaller or side portions of three vegetarian dishes and two injera breads. Our food arrived on a large platter with all of the choices spread across three injera breads opened out flat (this is where taking a picture would’ve been a good idea, but Yi to the rescue via Flickr).

We ordered the DoroWott, Kitfo and the mild lamb dish (either the Keyi- or Alicha- BeggWott). We were served FasoliaWott, Gomen, AlichaMiser, KeyiMiser, Azifa and Bedergan as sides with double-helpings of some of those. Many of the dishes are spicy, but there’s enough mild dishes for those who don’t go for that. I’d never had the Kitfo, which can be served uncooked or seared. I went for the seared version. The flavor isn’t like many things that I’ve had before. I quite liked it. I’ve left out the descriptions, but you can find them on their web site, which, incidentally, needs some help.

The service was good. Our waiter was knowledgable and attentive and the price was reasonable. It was just under $60 for the five of us. I was the only one who ordered beer or wine. My mother-in-law enjoyed the Ethiopian spiced hot tea. If I didn’t work so far away, I’d be all over their lunch buffet and specials. The place was pretty well packed at 7pm last night. I hope they’re doing that well as a general rule because I’d like to see them stick around.

ACL Program - Manu Chao

Several of the bands in town this week for the annual Austin City Limits music festival are also taping episodes of the show. Erykah Badu cancelled, but Manu Chao, Drive-by Truckers, Gnarls Barkley, The Swell Season, and The Foo Fighters are all taping shows in the next week. ACL show producer Terry Lickona described the first taping last night as an unusual treat.

Manu Chao rarely perform in the US and it’s even more rare for them to appear on US television. They tend to focus on Europe and South America. Manu Chao’s parents fled Franco’s regime in Spain and settled in France where he was born, so many of his songs are in Spanish or French. He was a founding member of the early 90s band, Mano Negra. Like that band, his current work has reggae and ska influences along with a decent helping of latin music & rhythms and punk rock. Their most recent album, La Radiolina, was released last year. Many of his lyrics are political. I’m pretty sure I heard a few references to a certain controlled substance, not surprising given the reggae influence. He was interviewed by High Times last year around the time that La Radiolina was released.

They’re a high energy band and will do well on a festival stage. The normally subdued ACL taping crowd took a little prodding to get going. Last night’s band included 6 musicians in addition to Chao himself: a drummer, a percussionist, a trumpet player, a keyboardist, a bassist and a guitarist. They wore their influences on their shirts. The percussionist was wearing a Tuff Gong shirt and the bass player, looked like a massive soccer hooligan, was wearing a Bad Brains shirt. They all made an effort to pump up the crowd and got people clapping and shouting throughout the set.

They stuck to mostly up tempo numbers and didn’t really pause much between songs. Several of the tracks on La Radiolina include a siren sound repeated throughout. I thought it was overused and, honestly, after several songs, they kind of started to sound the same. A sampling of their recordings while writing this reveals more diversity. I’d chalk some of that impression up to my unfamiliarity with the material. I’d definitely check them out for at least half of their set. I’m glad to see the show is still making an effort to introduce its audience to artists they may not have seen before in addition to pulling in more mainstream acts like Foo Fighters.

Manu Chao is the Friday night headliner at ACL Festival, starting at 8:30pm on the AT&T stage.

Set List (may not be exact):

PANIK PANIK
EL HOYO
BOBBY MARLEY
LA PRIMAVERA POLITIKS
RADIO BEMBA…COURT
BIENVENIDA A TIJUANA
EL VIENTO
CLANDESTINO
MINHA GALERA
RUMBA DE BARCELONA
LA DESPEDIDA
RAININ IN PARADIZE
A COSA
DIA LUNA
VOLVER
RADIO BEMBA ELDORADO
MI VIDA
INFINITA TRISTEZA
TOMBOLA
ALAS ROTAS
DESAPARECIDO
ME LLAMAN CALLE

I’ve been waiting for this one! Stone Pale Ale, Stone Brewing’s flagship beer, is finally available in Austin. I ran across it today in Central Market and now that I look, The Ginger Man’s latest newsletter announces it as a new draught beer this month! You should check it out and see what we’ve been missing. I only hope this means that it won’t be long before we get the full line. Up until now, we’ve only been able to get Arrogant Bastard and Stone IPA.