(Bloomberg) — The bright green “On the Fly” food cart with a large decorative wing parked in Washington’s Chinatown seems to be in the wrong city.
Offering hummus, vegetarian tacos and organic teas, the cart and its menu are in stark contrast to the aging metal-box stands nearby that sell bags of cheese popcorn, candy bars and hot dogs. A street-food revolution is under way in Washington, which has long trailed cities like Philadelphia, famous for its street-cart cheese steaks, and New York, where vendors offer everything from kebabs to crepes.
While many vendors cling to the traditional products, such as the pork and beef sausages known as half-smokes, some have begun stretching their menus. Abebe Biasmir, an Ethiopian immigrant, whose cart at 15th Street and New York Avenue is in view of the White House, now sells half-smokes and Ethiopian food such as injera, a spongy bread; tibs, a grilled meat dish; and spiced lentils.
The end of a moratorium on new licenses is giving heartburn to longtime vendors, mostly immigrants, who have protested the changes and tried to thwart competition from newcomers by calling the police on even minor violations of vending rules.
“If somebody puts his cart in the corner beside me, I lose everything,” said Yehia Ramadan, an Egyptian immigrant who operates a cart a few blocks from the White House. “We’re against On the Fly.”
About 250 vendors set up each day in Washington’s central business zone, the area around the White House and the National Mall most popular with tourists. Several hundred more operate in the district’s other neighborhoods.
‘Scared of Street Carts’
Gabe Klein, 37, outfitted the On the Fly carts and recruited a chef trained at the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia — one of the nation’s most prestigious and pricey restaurants — to develop the cuisine. A transformation in the city’s dreary street-food landscape is inevitable, he said.
“People are scared of street carts,” Klein said. “I don’t think the hot dog business will get better.”
Jordan Lichman, a former sous chef at the Inn, where meals start at $148 per person, created $2 tacos for On the Fly.
“There’s no reason why you can’t have really great, simple food, fresh, prepared well, on the street,” Lichman said. “Everywhere else in the world does it.”
Klein’s efforts to appeal to office workers with organic foods sold from environmentally friendly electric-powered carts has some longtime vendors worried that his company will soon dominate the district.
“We’re afraid he’ll be pushing us to sell him our carts or join his business,” said Salah Awadalla, a 51-year-old Egyptian immigrant who parks his cart on the edge of Chinatown. “People don’t want to lose this job.”
A moratorium on new licenses from 1998 to 2006 may have contributed to a malaise among vendors. Without competition, vendors could afford to continue serving the same food they always had. The moratorium was lifted in 2006, and tensions have risen as 400 new vendors received licenses.
“There’s a lot of fear, a lot of concerns within that vending population,” said Samuel Williams, a street sales coordinator for the district. “We’re definitely seeing a great amount of pushback from some of the longstanding vendors.”
Street vendors take in about $40,000 per year, said Michael Rupert, a spokesman for the city.
Trung Chau, 20, a Vietnamese immigrant who operates a cart with his uncle near the National Mall, sees the influx of new vendors as “very, very difficult for our business.”
Chau said established vendors retaliate against the newcomers by trying to catch them violating rules, such as parking in the wrong spot or leaving unlicensed workers to mind carts, and then call the police.
“The police take them far away,” he said, smiling.
Jared Peterson, 35, who manages the On the Fly cart at 7th and F Streets, recalled witnessing a protest by traditional vendors about a month ago. They marched and waved signs, including one that said “Vendor Gentrification,” Peterson said.
Grandfathered Vendors
The lifting of the moratorium brought some benefits for the longtime vendors. At around the same time, city officials grandfathered all vendors into a system through which they can lease their street space from the District of Columbia.
Before that system was created, no vendor held claim to a particular spot, and many would hit the streets by 5 a.m. to secure the most desirable locations. Fistfights over territory were common and female vendors were intimidated by their male counterparts.
“There are volumes of police reports of people getting beaten up,” Williams said.
Akbar Nazary, whose wholesale company supplies about 40 Washington street vendors, said he will make whatever changes are necessary if the stands change their inventory to keep up.
“If more vendors are interested in selling fruit cups, we’ll somehow have to adjust to that,” he said. “Or fresh juices. Or shish kebab.”
Traditional vendors are more afraid of competition than they are of selling new fare, he said. “They are not opposing new food,” Nazary said. “Whatever the demand is, people sell.”
By Karen Leigh, [email protected].
(Shabelle Media Network) MOGADISHU — In teleconference he held for the press, the spokesman of the Islamic Courts Union, Sheikh Mohamud Sheikh Ibrahim, has said that an Ethiopian a Woyanne military official has surrendered to ICU on Wednesday.
“He couldn’t put up with the troubles they (Woyannes) face in Somalia. So he decided to come to the Islamic Courts,” Sheik Ibrahim said.”
“We welcomed him reverentially and we will welcome if others surrender.”
He added that the surrendered officer was a deputy official.
Sheik Ibrahim has noted that ICU will make the photo so the surrendered official and statement available soon.
Following the conference, the spokesman has allowed the press to listen the voice of the Woyanne officer by phone.
Speaking to Amharic, the surrendered officer, whose name was not revealed, told that he surrendered to the Islamic Courts.
It’s the first that Ethiopian a Woyanne official surrendered to the insurgents who are fighting against the presence of Ethiopian Woyanne troops in Somalia.
(AP) LONDON — The partner of a would-be suicide bomber who attempted to attack London’s subway system was convicted Wednesday for not warning police about the plot.
A jury in London found 32-year-old Yeshi Girma guilty of failing to provide information before her partner Hussain Osman and others attempted to set off explosions on the transit system on July 21, 2005. The bombs didn’t explode fully and no one was injured.
The attempted attacks came two weeks after four suicide bombers killed 52 subway and bus passengers in London.
Mulu Girma, 24, and Esayas Girma, 22, Yeshi’s sister and brother, were also both found guilty of failing to disclose information and helping Osman.
Mulu Girma’s boyfriend Mohamed Kabashi, 25, pleaded guilty to both charges before the trial.
A date for sentencing was not set immediately. The maximum sentence for failing to inform police is five years.
Yeshi Girma, who wept as the verdict was announced, had claimed that she was not married to Osman, with whom she had three children, that she didn’t live with him, and knew little of what he was doing. Prosecutors say she is his wife.
They said she helped Osman flee the country after the attempt, and that her fingerprints had been found on tapes of extremist Islamic sermons. She allegedly also allowed Osman to take their young son to a training camp in northwestern England where he met others involved in the plot.
“Yeshi Girma had prior knowledge of the events of 21/7. She had some information about what the bombers intended to do on 21/7, but failed to bring this to the attention of the police,” prosecutor Max Hill told jurors.
“Armed with that prior knowledge of what was going to happen, Yeshi Girma could have attempted to prevent the attacks, which, but for shortcomings in the production of the explosive devices, would have killed and injured many people,” he said.
Osman was sentenced to life in prison in the case along with Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed. Another plotter, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Five other men were also convicted and sentenced to prison for assisting the plotters.
Ethiopian circus superstar Sosina Wogayehu will perform in Melbourne, Australia, this month, starting on June 18.
Those of you in Australia, please go watch this amazingly talented Ethiopian girl.
Sosina told ER that she will come to the U.S. at the end of this year. She will perform in Texas, Lousianna and other states. She wanted to perform at this year’s annual Ethiopian soccer tournament in Washington DC, but unable to do so due to schedule conflict.
Sosina currently resides in Melbourne and works with Australia’s biggest circus company, CircusOZ.
See a video of one of Sosina’s performances here.
UPCOMING SHOWS
Melbourne, Australia
Venue: Under the Big Top
Birrarung Marr, Cnr Flinders Street & Batman Avenue
Wednesday 18 June 7.30pm SOLD OUT
Thursday 19 June 7.30pm VARIETY PERFORMANCE
Friday 20 June 7.30pm SOLD OUT
Saturday 21 June 1.30 & 7.30pm
Sunday 22 June 1.30pm
Wednesday 25 June 11am & 1pm SOLD OUT
Wednesday 25 June 7.30pm
Thursday 26 June 7.30pm
Friday 27 June 7.30pm
Saturday 28 June 1.30 & 7.30pm
Sunday 29 June 1.30pm
Wednesday 2 July 1.30 & 7.30pm
Thursday 3 July 7.30pm
Friday 4 July 7.30pm
Saturday 5 July 1.30 & 7.30pm
Sunday 6 July 1.30pm
Wednesday 9 July 1.30 & 7.30pm
Thursday 10 July 7.30pm
Friday 11 July 7.30pm
Saturday 12 July 1.30 & 7.30pm
Sunday 13 July 1.30pm
Click here for more information here.
ST. LOUIS, MO — Among the flourishing collection of ethnic restaurants on St. Louis’s Grand Boulevard sits the comfortable and gently decorated Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant.
Meskerem is a family-owned operation that also has two restaurants in New York and one in Charlotte, N.C. The St. Louis location opened about a year ago.
I’d never eaten Ethiopian food until my pal Nate and I visited Meskerem. The restaurant offers a variety of beef, chicken, lamb and vegetarian dishes, all affordably priced; the majority of entrees are $9 to $13.
Ethiopian food is eaten without cutlery. Diners use their right hand to break off a piece of injera, a bland and spongy flatbread made from a grain called teff, then use the injera to scoop up the food.
The Ethiopian spice blend berbere (bur-ba-ree) gives the food a solid kick, although fans of vindaloo and hot curry might find it a bit tame. The blend shows up in a number of saucy dishes, including ones with chickpeas, minced collard greens and/or lentils.
Our meal began with two beef sambosas ($4), deep-fried triangles of pastry filled with chopped beef, hot green pepper, onions and garlic. This was one of the few items on the menu that is served hot. The vegetarian version uses lentils in place of beef and sells for a dollar less. The filling was tasty but a bit dry, and if we had eaten at the restaurant, we probably would have asked for a saucy condiment of some sort.
On the server’s recommendation, we sampled a second appetizer. Azifa (ah-zie-fa) ($4.95) is a light dish made of brown lentils, green peppers and onion mashed in a tangy Ethiopian mustard vinaigrette.
We also enjoyed the butecha (boo-teh-cha) ($8.95), which is milled chickpeas, onions and jalapeños sautéed in olive oil and cooked with lemon juice. The flavors reminded us of an oniony potato salad.
We shared a beef combination plate that was more than enough for two hungry men. The Meskerem combo ($12.95) includes tibs wat, which is tender thin cuts of beef sautéed in berbere. We really enjoyed the gomen besaega (bee-say-ga), beef seasoned with garlic, onion and ginger set atop some wonderful chopped collard greens (we’ll order this separately on another visit).
The combination platter was rounded out with two lentil sides. Miser alecha (a-leh-cha) is split lentils with ginger, garlic, onion and a mild curry sautéed in olive oil. Miser wat is similar to alecha, with berbere sauce instead of curry. Both lentil dishes reminded us of refried beans.
The only complaint we had about our meal was the temperature of the injera. Our order included seven or eight pieces of this bread, and each was refrigerator-cold. A call to the restaurant confirmed the injera should have been at room temperature; they offered to deliver replacements to my home, but we declined.
Sampling cuisines of the world is an adventure. We get to meet some nice people who take great pride in pleasing our palates. Meskerem did a wonderful job of introducing us to some of the foods of Ethiopia.
Meskerem is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. By Gordon McKnight, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
