Mercato – The Market Place – Ethiopian Journey – Blog Post no - 44

The big shock was the market place. It was the market of all markets. The market was quite primitive and had very few vegetables to offer. We had the choice of only four vegetables namely potato, tomato, cabbage, carrot and onion.  The greens that we could buy were very large mustard leaves and a green vegetable that resembled palak and the size of the leaves were quite large.

Addis Ababa being the capital had a great range of vegetables available but the huge distance between Addis and Bahirdar, a one day journey on roads that take heavy toll on vehicles and on people as the roads were rugged and the route had very steep climbs and entailed crossing the Nile Gorge meant that other vegetables like Brinjal, Okra, Beans were a rare treat.  Indians visiting Addis would bring in limited quantities as most Indians used flights to travel between Bahirdar and Addis and vice-versa. We treasured and used them sparingly.

Bananas, Guavas, Papayas and Mangoes were available but the mango had a very peculiar taste. It was fibrous and not very sweet. Being spoiled on bangenappali and rasalu, the Ethiopian mango was a tough fruit to crack. Also available were Ochollini (peanuts). Ochollini available in Bahirdar were giant sized. Roasted, peeled and salted, these Ochollini made a tasty and delectable snack.

I also learned to use limited Amharic words, useful in the market place. The most important word was “Sintenum (how much in Amharic)” and “ORRORO” said in a disapproving and guttural voice when someone quotes an exorbitant price. Usage of Amharic words surprised the vendors who would first be zapped but would later break into shy giggles!  

We quickly learnt that we need to have our own kitchen garden. Padma sowed rajma seeds and in no time we were getting the Rajma beans that were used like normal beans. We also started growing ridge gourd. Suresh, our friend from POLY, gave us totakura and he generously gifted the same to the entire Indian community.

We learnt to share whatever little garden bounty that we had with the Indian community and that gave us great pleasure to give a little part of India to our fellow Indians living so far away from homeland.

We could get 3 Inkulalas (eggs) for 2 birrs. The eggs were country eggs, small and tasty. 

We could also get hens for 10-15 birrs, but the chickens were country hens and we had to buy them live. It was quite a messy job to slaughter and clean them. Seeing all this process Padma, a vegetarian was not at all keen on buying. We bought hens only on very rare occasions and got them slaughtered by maids for parties hosted by us.

Party hosting for a mixed group of Indians and Ethiopians threw up a peculiar challenge. We had to prepare three types of cuisines, Indian vegetarian, Non vegetarian halal meat dishes for Indian and Ethiopian Muslims and Jhatka meat dishes for Ethiopian Christians. Muslims would not eat Jhatka meat and correspondingly the Ethiopian Christians would not consume the halal meat.

All the dishes have to be marked separately and in a place where we had limited cutlery, it was a huge logistical nightmare. In the end Padma gave up and concentrated in hosting parties where we served purely Indian vegetarian dishes.