Assab So Good.

If you’ve ever had the "pleasure" of being on the 38 or 38L Geary, then you’ve gone by this small green

and gold restaurant plenty of times. I know I had. With every pass, it always struck me – what exactly is Eritrean food? Or, you can ask, where is Eritrea? One adventurous night and I just had to try it and find out.

Assab is an Eritrean haven. For someone who has never even looked up what kind of food it was – the

menu was very well descriptive and our server was sweet as the honey wine they serve.

That’s right – honey wine! Two of my favorite things put together. I’m pretty sure it’s healthy for you too since it is made with honey. Right? That’s how it works? Health beneficial or not, it’s beneficial for my taste buds.

 Next, came lentil soup and vegetable Sambusas. The Sambusas were little fried-fritters of spicy goodness filled with peas and carrots. And when it got too spicy for me, I dipped it in my soup to cool it down. This lentil soup by the way is amazing. It is now one of my favorite soups and I can see myself going back to this restaurant just for a small bowl now and then. Delicious!

When ordering, we noticed that there’s about equal dishes served with meat as there are vegetarian. Fabulous! Most places seem to throw on vegetarian options out of necessity to please the angry vegans. But Assab integrates it seamlessly to the menu. For us two pescetarians, we had a hard time deciding what we wanted.

Our server recommended that we eat family style so we can share. We ordered Kantisha (spicy mushrooms with vegetables and yogurt) and a vegetable sample (came with a little of everything else). spongey-crepe-like-bread. Noticing the lack of utensils, I looked at my boyfriend, looked at the bread, and then dug in hands first.

Pictures don't do it justice!

Our food came on a giant round plate and was served with this

Eating with your hands as a vessel for food means one less stage your food has to go through. And when devouring this meal, it was necessary. We stuffed ourselves to the rim!

The spices were perfect and you can definitely taste the Indian influence in the food. The bread sopped up the delicious sauces. And if I ate anymore you would have had to roll me out of there Violet Beauregard Willy Wonka blueberry style.

Called it a night and happily came home. Looking forward to my next return to Assab, hopefully  soon!