Dining Out: Exotic Ethiopian Cuisine at New Eritrea

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Dear Adventurous Diners,
You must try Ethiopian. It has the allure of an exotic, mysterious, spicy, and a unique dining experience because the typical meal is only eaten with your hands. While some flavors are similar to Indian foods, Ethiopian is a more meat-and-vegetable focused meal without the yogurts and custards. A soft pancake-like bread called injera comes on the side of all dishes, pieces of which you tear off to use as your utensil to scoop from the main platter.

Still confused? As always, Wikipedia will break Ethiopian cuisine into a simplified, digestible summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_cuisine.

I have been in San Francisco this week and was treated to apparently, the best around at the New Eritrea Restaurant at 10th and Irving. As at most Ethiopian restaurants, our main dish was one large injera pancake platter topped with little portions of the meat or vegetable type dish that you specify: as novices at New Eritrea, we elected to try the Meat and Vegetable Sampler.

We also ordered a meat Sambusa appetizer, which we decided is like the Ethiopian version of a taco. Ground beef, caramelized onions, and spices, wrapped in a little fried envelope accompanied by a deceivingly spicy olive tapenade-type sauce. This sauce had the same kind of surprise kick factor as your first wasabi bite.

Our entree platter included:

1. Alicha Begee, "mildly seasoned cubes of lamb mixed with potatoes, carrots, peppers, curry, and Eritrean spices."
2. Zigni, "squares of lean beef, simmered in red pepper sauce with Eritrean spices" 
3. Zebhi Dorho, "Marinated chicken drumsticks simmered in onion, tomatoes, clarified butter, and red pepper sauce."
4. Tumtumo "Lentil beans pureed and simmered with Eritrean spices, tomatoes, onions, and herbs."
5. Hamli "Collard greens and spinach simmered in authentic Eritrean spices"
6. Vegetarian Allicha, essentially #1 minus the lamb.
7. Alicha-Ater, "Chickpea pureed and simmered in onion, garlic, and authentic Eritrean spices."

Alright so the main ingredients are nothing we haven't seen before, but I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering about these so-called "Eritrean spices." With a little investigation I found that these typically include:

Red chili pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, ground ginger, salt, and ground spices: cardamom, cloves, cumin, cinnamon, fenugreek, and black pepper.

As a note, we found there to be little warning of the spicyness of the food, fortunately didn't mind, and even more fortunately had honey wine (tej), which is an essential complement to the meal. Honey wine is an ambrosial "nectar of the gods" kind of drink and really contrasts the cooked, spicy, heat of the food perfectly.

Second note: the injera beneath the various entree dishes becomes saturated with the flavors of the meats and vegetable spices above it and is also a tasty little treat.

If you're in San Francisco, five stars to New Eritrea, I would definitely give it my recommendation.
I looked up Ethiopian cuisine local to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where I am currently based and found the closest: Dahlak Restaurant in Germantown (near Philadelphia) and Abyssinia in Philadelphia.
I can speak for the experience yet not specifically for the food, but that is what Yelp is for. Let other people's reviews help you decide.
If you have a smart phone, get the AroundMe app, which does the search I just did according to your specified criteria: restaurants, stores, etc.