Awash Ethiopian Restaurant, Amsterdam Ave. between 106th and 107th

When I ate the soury, spicy leftovers from Awash, an Ethiopian restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue, I thought of Abraham Verghese's characters in Cutting for Stone and how they longed for the taste of Ethiopia.  Verghese's narrator, after he's moved to America, finds himself entering an Ethiopian restaurant in Boston.  "The smell of fermenting honey elicited a Pavlovian response from [his] taste buds."  He eats as  if he had lived through a famine.   An Ethiopian restaurant in New York conjures up for the narrator "the sour taste of injera and a fiery wot" and his mouth begins watering.

I ate at Awash several months ago with my sister.  On the walls, painted in shades of lemon and lime, pictures of women and pastoral scenes hang.  The food we ordered was served on a big round tray, set in the middle of the table.  The yebeg wat, a lamb stew seasoned with berbere sauce contained tender chunks of meat in a rather thick brown soury-spicy sauce.  The gomen, collard greens, were cooked with onions and a hint of cardamon.  The yemesir kik wat, split red lentils cooked in berbere sauce were perfectly al dente -- a bit of a crunch as you chewed into the soft center.  All was served on a wonderful, spongy bread.  There is no silverware.  You pull a piece of the plentiful bread and scoop the sour-hot stew from the platter.  I imagine this is a taste you acquire.  But it is fun to tear off the bread, scoop up the food, and talk.  

Cafe du Soleil, Broadway between 104th and 105th

A late, light dinner for a Friday evening away from the bustle and noise of the city:  Cafe du Soleil.  The restaurant is light and cheerful -- a yellow-gold awning covering cafe tables on the sidewalk (too cold) and a warm, tiled interior with big mirrors on the walls, reflecting and opening up the space.  We arrived about 8 p.m. and were immediately seated at a table in front of the window -- and beside the host's lectern.

We could have been adventurous (well, as adventurous as one can be in a French bistro,) and ordered something other than the steak frites, but that is what we both like very much.  And I have a tendency to want to try out the French fries where ever I go.

We started by sharing the Frisee au Rocquefort Salad with thinly sliced apples, ground walnuts and a Dijon vinaigrette ($9.95).  Then we split the grilled, marinated hanger steak ($23.95), a generally tough cut, which was tender in portions and a bit chewy in others.  The steak was covered with a rich Bordelaise sauce suffused with fresh rosemary (in fact, a branch of rosemary lay across the layered steak portions.  The pomme frites, served in a paper cone, were superb:  buttery and crisp on the outside, soft and potatoey on the inside.  We ate every single one -- dipped either in ketchup or the wonderful reduced red wine sauce.


For dessert we shared a banana cream pie which was more a tiramisu with bananas in a vanilla wafer crust ($7.95).


Cafe du Soleil offers specials every day:  Monday, any steak is $12.95; Thursday any fish is $12.95; Wednesdays bottles of wine are half-priced.  They offer a pre-theater special (just hop on the #1 train at 104th and you'll arrive at Lincoln Center in about 5 minutes) for $21.95, a prix fixe menu on Sundays for $25.95.