Rendezvous in Culver City

Today Astrid and I had lunch with Uwe at Fassica, an Ethiopian restaurant in Culver City located next to Sony Studios. I ordered the lamb stew that came with injera (a spongy bread). Uwe had the vegetarian combination plate.
We'd been wanting to try Ethiopian food for awhile now (like 5 years!). Friends of ours who had tried it had mixed reviews. Some raved about the great vegetarian dishes. While another friend said..and I quote, "There's a reason why Ethiopia isn't known for it's food."

Uwe's vegetarian plate looked great. It was very colorful with small portions of a variety of tasty vegetarian sides (i.e., lentils, potatoes, stewed cabbage, collard greens, etc.). My lamb stew however was not appetizing at all. Since the menu said "stew" I was expecting a dish that had been simmered for hours with lamb and vegetables in a rich sauce. However, what I got was a bunch of bones with a little lamb meat attached in a greasy soup broth.

The owner was nice enough to fix me another lamb dish on the house, which I did not want, but she insisted and then I felt obligated to eat it. Initially we had gone there for the "vegetarian buffet." But when we got there we didn't see any buffet so we ordered from the menu. Then we saw this tiny stand with small plastic containers on top in a square shape. I thought it was a condiment stand. But it turns out it was the buffet! How hard is it to put in a long counter with nice dishes and garnish so that it doesn't look like we're eating leftovers out of tupperware containers?

But it wasn't a total loss...I got a nice pic of my two loves ...Uwe and Astrid.

And afterwards I had a delicious chai tea at the Conservatory for Coffee.