Ambo Ethiopian Cuisine

Mulunesh Belay grew up in Ambo, in Ethiopia, and started cooking beside her mother at five. She moved to Bellingham, found no African food anywhere in it, and opened a stall at the farmers market in 2005. Nine years later she took a counter in the Bellingham Public Market, and when that closed she opened on North State Street in November 2019.

Almost nothing here is bought in. She blends her own berbere from the separate spices rather than buying it ready made, bakes her injera in house from teff, rice, sorghum and barley, and roasts her own coffee. She has also written a cookbook, which Village Books carries.

Doro wat is chicken slow cooked with ginger, garlic and onion and served with a boiled egg. There are stews of green lentil and yellow split pea, and lamb alicha, with kale, cabbage and house cottage cheese alongside. Her own advice is to order more than one thing. Order only chicken, she says, and you have missed the lamb.