Ethiopian cuisine pops up in Hong Kong for the first time

SCMP
December 11,2014
by Jenni Marsh
jenni.marsh@scmp.com

There’s something of a dark irony to promoting Ethiopian dining, given the country’s tragic history of famine.

Just over 30 years ago, the BBC transmitted devastating images from northern Ethiopia showing 15,000 children dying from starvation. The broadcast moved Irish singer Bob Geldof to organise charity concert Live Aid, and brought Ethiopia’s food crisis to the world’s attention.

But times have changed. Today Ethiopia has one of the continent’s fastest growing non-oil-dependent economies.

Outside Asia, the Ethiopian food movement is already big, especially in the US. Washington, New York and Los Angeles all have thriving Ethiopian food districts.

Now one woman is on a mission to bring the cuisine to Hong Kong. Helina Tesega recently opened a pop-up kitchen called Eat Ethio – the only provider of Ethiopian cuisine in the city. Tesega jokes that Eat Ethio is her way of telling the world, “Yes, y’all, we have food.”

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