{"id":11894,"date":"2016-09-29T17:06:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T21:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11894"},"modified":"2016-09-30T09:26:53","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T13:26:53","slug":"red-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/red-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 2016 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

A Dash of Spice<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"restaurant-review-oct16\"Red Sea<\/b> whisks authentic Ethiopian cuisine <\/span>to hungry Forest City diners.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Red Sea<\/strong> splashes onto Washington Avenue as we enter to find bright yellow walls and taverna-style tables covered in white linen. <\/span><\/p>\n

We begin with tapas-style starter plates, opting first for falafel ($5, below). Served steaming hot, the chickpea patties radiate intricately balanced spices, herbs, and a decent kick of garlic. Next up, sambusas ($5, above right). We devour tasty pastry triangles filled with seasoned ground beef (or chicken or lentils as desired), served with a zesty citrus hummus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Entr\u00e9es arrive family style, in true Ethiopian tradition. The sampler plate (meat $30, vegetarian, $26) serves 2-3 diners, or you can order separate entr\u00e9es presented together, as we did. <\/span><\/p>\n

After much deliberation, we choose a plate of yebeg alicha<\/i> ($15), deeply flavorful cubes of tender lamb stewed with potatoes, carrots, peppers, curry, and alluring spices. The Eritrean-style spicy haddock stew ($13) delights with delicately textured chunks of fresh fish bathed in an exotic sauce.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most satisfyingly, the entr\u00e9es arrive heaped upon a huge platter of injera<\/i>, a spongy sourdough bread made from \u201cteff,\u201d a gluten-free flour surrounded colorfully by red lentils, kale, and fresh green salad. Four extra rolls of the delicious injera<\/i> bread garnish four corners of the plate. The traditional method invites you to eat without utensils, breaking off pieces of the flatbread to scoop up the food\u2013the sensation is freeing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Libations at Red Sea are limited, especially beer. You\u2019ll find bottles of Heineken and Corona ($3.50), or Blue Moon ($4). A glass of Dark Horse Chardonnay ($5) also proves a worthwhile pairing to the fragrant dishes on offer. However, for a real treat, sample the traditional coffee ($3.75). Individually and freshly brewed, it\u2019s a fitting accompaniment to the only dessert (and it is stunning)\u2013sweet, flaky parcels of baklava.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quick trip, memorable vacation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Red Sea, 30 Washington Avenue, Portland. Wed. to Sat., 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Mon. & Tues., 12-9:30 p.m. 805-1488<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 2016
\nA Dash of Spice – Red Sea whisks authentic Ethiopian cuisine to hungry Forest City diners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-11894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-october-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11894"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11984,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11894\/revisions\/11984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}