Incredible Music Tonight!

My friends Jen Sygit and Sam Corbin will be playing music at Altu’s restaurant (East Lansing) tonight, from 6:30 to 8:30. Great music, great talent, amazing harmonies. Both musicians write great originals, and they will play some of those and some music written by others. I will be there.

Many of my friends, knitters and musicians alike, will be attending a Contra Dance in downtown Lansing tonight. If you fall into this group, please consider coming to Altu’s before you head downtown. It will make a fully satisfying night… artforms including music, dance, spectacular cooking, and perhaps knitting. (I’m not sure why, but lots of contra dancers also knit.)

You Must Check Out the Addition!

If you read here often, you will know that my friend Altu’s restaurant has expanded recently. Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine (EatAtAltus.com) in East Lansing, Michigan is a place where everything is literally made from scratch. The quality is superb, the kitchen is spotless, the flavors in the food are deep… sometimes subtle, sometimes spicy, always good.

There is now a real raised stage with lighting, and plenty of space for several large groups at once. No more worries about seating, my friends! It’s beautiful now… more mellow, more unique, more relaxing.

Open House Next Week: Sat. Jan. 23, 11am – 4 pm

Altu will be having a celebration next Saturday from 11-4 to celebrate the new space. There will be music during that time, and then again in the evening from 6:30-8:30 from Scarlet Runner String Band. If you must miss today, consider making it next week. I will miss the daytime festivities but will be there for dinner, next week. (A woman must work, and I have a class scheduled Jan 23 during the afternoon.)

So, What is the Food Like?

If you have never had Ethiopian food before, it consists of different types of thick stews, either veggie or meat, mild or spicy. Even meat eaters go for veggie food here, it is so flavorful.

In Ethiopia, they present the food in family style… on a platter, with spongy, sproingy sourdough Ethiopian bread(often called Injera) under it all. You pull off a piece of the bread (it’s like a thick crepe in form) and use it to pick up your food with your fingers, like a small taco. Ethiopians get so good at this, their fingers never get messy. I’ve been practicing for years but I’m not there yet.

In Ethiopia, the Injera is made of a gluten-free  grain called Teff. Here, because our altitude is different, Altu adds some wheat all-purpose flour to the bread. However, one can order their dinner on a bed of rice instead of on bread. I have friends who do not tolerate wheat at all (celiac or wheat-sensitive, both), and they do well at Altu’s eating meals this way. There is no wheat in any other food in the restaurant.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 2:36 pmand is filed under Dance and Music, Food, Lansing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.