African eats - by Al Mancini
CITY LIFE - Las Vegas City Life
Thursday, January 13, 2005

Adventurous diners owe it to themselves to try Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant

Anyone who has ever attended an event at the Las Vegas Convention Center really doesn't need to be told that the parking situation there sucks. The primary lot on Convention Center Drive isn't nearly sufficient for a major event like the Consumer Electronics Show, which is why I found myself hiking several blocks down that very road recently, having illegally parked my car in a private lot and hoping it wouldn't be towed during the hour or so it would take me to pick up my press credential. During that walk, I saw something that caught my attention: a small sign advertising an Ethiopian restaurant called Meskerem. Having only had Ethiopian food once before (more than a decade ago in New York City, when it was the inspiration for numerous tasteless famine jokes among my friends), I decided to check the place out on my walk back to my car. It proved to be a good call, since Meskerem's wide variety of affordable African dishes made for a much more interesting meal than the overpriced junk food available at the Convention Center.

Like so many of the best ethnic restaurants in the city, Meskerem is an unassuming establishment tucked away in an unremarkable strip mall. It features several small tables and a bar in the back. My first indication that it was the real deal came from the half-dozen or so patrons who were in there when I waked through the door at 3 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon, all of whom were speaking in a language that -- to my ignorant American ears, at least -- seemed to be African in origin. A later visit to the Ethiopian market a few doors down, which is owned by the same people, further reassured me of Meskerem's authenticity.

A handful of American staples stand out on the restaurant's three-page menu: a pair of egg dishes and a bagel in the breakfast section; a single pasta dish and various sandwiches among the entrées; lentil soup; a Greek salad; and the desserts. All of the rest of the offerings, however, were gloriously unfamiliar, promising a true culinary adventure. Thankfully, in addition to both English and Ethiopian titles, most also included fairly extensive descriptions.

Breakfast choices include "foul" ($3), described as fresh Java beans cooked in olive oil with onion, green pepper and spices and served with sour cream and bread. There's also a beef dish called firmer ($6). There are 22 lunch or dinner selections, including a beef stew called key yesiga wot ($6), a pair of lamb stews known as yebeg alicha and yebeg kikil ($7 each), an Ethiopian version of steak tartare known as "gored gored" ($8.50), and yedoro wot ($7.50), which is chicken stewed with red pepper sauce and an assortment of spices.

The hallmark of Ethiopian cooking, however, is injera, a spongy and sour flatbread that serves as much as a utensil as it does a bread. When a meal arrives at your table, all of the courses are laid out on a large piece of injera, with several other pieces accompanying it on the side. Diners then tear off small pieces and use them to pick up the various meats and vegetables with their fingers, allowing them to keep their hands clean while enjoying what would otherwise be an extremely messy meal.

The dark dining area at Meskerem is clean and inviting, but my fear of having my car towed convinced me that I should take my order to go. It was a combination plate ($10) that included yebeg keyi wot, a lamb dish prepared with onion and red pepper, and the aforementioned yebeg alicha. Both were delicious and spicy, although packing them into a takeout container wrapped in injera left me with a much messier meal than I would have experienced if I had eaten in. That might explain why there were no takeout menus available. This is definitely a dine-in experience.

Meskerem is a hidden gem that could easily find a following among adventurous diners outside of the local Ethiopian community. Management doesn't seem terribly concerned with that, however. Even after revealing that I was working on a column about the place for CityLife , it took me three separate visits before I could convince someone to part with a copy of the menu so I could use it as a reference. Their indifference toward the press, however, doesn't extend to customers. The staff is extremely friendly and accepting of neophytes to Ethiopian cuisine, making this a place that any truly adventurous diner should visit.

article link: www.lasvegascitylife.com
article date: Thursday, January 13, 2005

Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant

252 Convention Center Drive, 8B

702-732-4250