My love affair with Shiro

Shiro crept up on me.

I always knew OF her.

I felt her presence everyday.

Smelt her presence everyday.

She greeted me at every Ethiopian home I was invited to. Everyone who knew her talked about her with so much love, fondness and familiarly. I guess she earnt it, she is always there, her loyalty unquestionable.

An affordable, healthy and fasting staple in the daily diet of millions of Ethiopians.

Then came the day, I remember so vividly, when she really made an impression on me. It was a most unsuspecting moment.

Back story.. Shiro is made mostly from chickpea powder cooked with minced onions, garlic and sometimes tomatoes, to form a stew thats normally eaten with injera. Injera is a spongy-like pancake made from the super grain teff, which forms the base of most meals in Ethiopia and food is placed on top. Using one’s hands (usually the right) injera is used to scoop up the food. Injera and Shiro are the daily mainstays in the majority of Ethiopians’ every day dietary life (especially during fasting times) and the nutritional value is very high. Injera, made from teff is high in iron and minerals and other phytonutrients and Shiro made from chickpeas is very high in protein. One can sustain themselves on this diet quite happily not to mention eating with the hands is deeply satisfying.

Back to the story.. It happened in Nazret, a city 100km south of the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. I was visiting a friend back in 2012, her name is Seble.

Seble was a fellow colleague / children's teacher at a school called English Alive and her meagre/insufficient salary allowed her to rent a tiny one room mud hut, in a compound residing with many others, as is very common all over Ethiopia. It was very basic with shared facilities. A long drop and dirt outside to construct a fire to cook your meals.

This day Seble cooked Shiro for us (myself and her) inside her tiny 3m by 3m hut which contained a single bed and her humble belongings. I could feel the honour she felt in inviting me and providing me with a meal she cooked right before me, followed by performing a coffee ceremony. I too felt honoured. The love she showed through her hospitality was beautiful.

We ate the Shiro and it was delicious!

I had eaten Shiro many times previous to Seble's one, but I just remember tasting it with the fresh injera she bought from her local suk/shop and thinking how delicious it was. Or maybe the love and honour behind it made it even more tasty/yitafital!

Shiro is soooo good with fresh injera. They really make the perfect marriage.