{"id":5579,"date":"2017-07-23T17:47:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T03:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workable-level.flywheelsites.com\/?p=5579"},"modified":"2017-09-23T10:16:47","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T20:16:47","slug":"hidden-gem-ethiopian-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/23\/hidden-gem-ethiopian-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Gem: Ethiopian Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY\u00a0KAYLA VALERA<\/a>\u00a0| STAFF WRITER<\/h5>\n

Tucked away in Chinatown along Smith Street, the only Ethiopian restaurant on O\u02bbahu, Ethiopian Love<\/a>, has been welcoming\u00a0visitors to try its authentic and cultural dishes for the past two and a half years. However, the\u00a0owners, Abraham Samuel and his partner Fay Shewakena, started making flavorful foods native to their country ever since they were a pop-up eatery on Kapahulu back in 2012.<\/p>\n

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Ethiopian Love is located on\u00a0<\/span>1112 Smith St in Chinatown and is a great venue for intimate dining groups or large parties. (Photo by Kayla Valera)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The inspiration to open\u00a0the restaurant\u00a0came from their exposure to\u00a0other restaurants on the mainland. Having traveled\u00a0to nearly 40 states in the U.S., the couple noticed that most places that served\u00a0traditional Ethiopian food didn’t taste genuine and decided that they would replicate the\u00a0dishes that they fondly remember from home. Since then, both Samuel and Shewakena have been integrating their delicious and exotic foods to the island’s roster of healthy eating options.<\/p>\n

Besides the taste, it’s easy to see the influence of Ethiopian from the decor and photographs that surrounds its intimate interior.\u00a0Incorporating as much art and traditions into their atmosphere as possible, Ethiopian Love stays true to its roots and hopes to spread its culture with the customers in an equally educational and enjoyable way. Its inclusive dining options for vegans\/vegetarians and omnivores also makes it a great\u00a0eating environment for those still curious about Ethiopian dishes.<\/p>\n

For novices of Ethiopian cuisines, it is recommended to refer to the helpful videos on the restaurant’s website<\/a>. The eating style is uniquely different due to the fact that one\u00a0would not usually\u00a0eat with utensils, but rather with their hands. Using injera, a sourdough-like flatbread that is made of the\u00a0grain teff, customers\u00a0would unravel the given bread and use it to pick up the food on the round plate with it. This would apply to most of the entr\u00e9es, but if needed there are forks and spoons that the staff\u00a0are willing to\u00a0supply.<\/p>\n

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The outside patio of Ethiopian Love makes for an ideal eating space for bigger parties. (Photo by Kayla Valera)<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the reasons as to why\u00a0Samuel and Shewakena don’t wish to expand the restaurant\u00a0to other locations is because\u00a0the preparation for\u00a0the\u00a0food can be quite time-consuming and requires special attention. For example, the\u00a0production of the injera alone, which is provided\u00a0with almost every dish served,\u00a0is made from scratch in the kitchen and requires\u00a0a\u00a02-3 day process to make. However, the agreeable\u00a0prices (ranging from $10-$30) and the quality dishes offered are enough of a reason for people to try out this new dining experience at its lone location.<\/p>\n

It is recommended that those who wish to bring along a big group (of 10 people or more) to dine in should make a reservation at least a month and a half in advance. For bigger parties who would like\u00a0a larger venue, there is an outside courtyard\u00a0that can service at least 30 people. In addition to this, catering for private parties is also possible by contacting the restaurant beforehand to design a set of meals for the event.<\/p>\n

Ethiopian Love\u00a0is located on\u00a0<\/span>1112 Smith St. in Chinatown and is<\/span>\u00a0open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays\u00a0through Mondays (closed on Tuesdays). Reservations can be made by calling (808) 725-7197, or online<\/a> by filling out a form on the\u00a0website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KAYLA VALERA\u00a0| STAFF WRITER Tucked away in Chinatown along Smith Street, the only Ethiopian restaurant on O\u02bbahu, Ethiopian Love, has been welcoming\u00a0visitors to try its authentic and cultural dishes for the past two and a half years. However, the\u00a0owners, Abraham Samuel and his partner Fay Shewakena, started making flavorful foods native to their country ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapionews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}