National Dish · Edible Plate

Injera with Wat

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The plate is bread — and you eat it, cutlery and all, once the stew is gone.

A large, spongy sourdough flatbread made from fermented teff flour, spread flat and topped with spiced stews (wat) — lentils, collard greens, spiced meat. Diners tear off pieces of injera with their hands and use it to scoop up the toppings.

Why it's made this way: Teff grows well in Ethiopia's highlands, and the days-long fermentation process needed for injera's sour, spongy texture turns the bread into both the meal's base and its only utensil.