Das Ubergeek has been quietly yearning for a little Ethiopian deliciousness in Orange County, to match the insane Ethiopian greatness way up on Fairfax. In 2007 he found his spot, Tana Ethiopian, and recently updated his old post with the news that Tana has expanded its menu.
Das Ubergeek’s new favorites include boiled potatoes with niter kebbeh, gingery, garlicky, spicy clarified butter, as well as biscuits made from chickpea flour, “buried in a pile of meltingly soft, sweet, caramelized spiced onions. It tasted like dessert,” says Das Ubergeek. They are “sweet oniony cookies, fantastic, unbelievable.”
But the best of the new items is a meat dish, quanta firfir: injera cooked with awaze, the spicy red pepper of Ethiopia, so it’s soft and lightly spicy and mellow, and with quanta, Ethiopian beef jerky. The quanta is so dry it’s crunchy, says Das Ubergeek.
Das Ubergeek also tried green beans cooked with onions until they were almost singed. “These were so good that my wife ate green beans willingly for the first time in two decades,” says Das Ubergeek. Collards have some crumbly cheese, which makes them very savory. And red lentils have “a smoky, rich, almost mole-like quality to them that just drove me wild,” says Das Ubergeek. You can order them all on the veggie platter, “a veritable mountain of food,” for a mere $10.
Tana Ethiopian [Orange County]
2622 W. La Palma Avenue, Anaheim
714-229-1719
Board Link: REVIEW: Tana Ethiopian Restaurant, Anaheim.
