WASS Ethiopian Restaurant

207 James Street South
Hamilton, Ontario
289.389.5294
website

After spending a week in Montréal, I came home and paid a visit to my boyfriend A. For dinner, A suggested going to La Cantina nearby; unfortunately, it is closed on Sunday. We had to walk farther to our new destination: WASS for our Ethiopian meal. A had eaten there a few times while it was my first time, thought I have had Ethiopian once before.



At the centre of Ethiopian food is injera, spongy-like bread, made from a cereal grain called tef, unique to Ethiopia. Injera is usually served at the base of a dish with different wat, Ethiopian stews, on top of it. A and I shared the Wass vegetarian combo ($12.00). The combo included such wat as gomen (collared greens), yatakilt wat (carrots, potatoes, cabbage), yemsir wat (lentils) and yekik alicha (yellow split peas). We also ordered a serving of shiro wat ($10.00), seasoned chickpeas in a berber sauce garlic.


The vegetarian combo makes quite the colourful plate.

To eat the wat, one just rips a piece of injera and scoop some of the wat. The injera is the perfect vehicle for the different flavoured wat. My favourite wat was the yellow split pea one. I also like the additional shiro wat we ordered; I was surprised the chickpeas were not left whole but were rather mashed. When we ran low of injera, the waitress brought us additional ones.



WASS is the perfect place to try Ethiopian food. A and I were already familiar with Ethiopian food, but the waitress seemed eager to explain the food. The menu is also very helpful with thorough explanations of each dish. If you've never tried Ethiopian food and you live near Hamilton, you have no more excuses.