Foods of the world: From Ethiopia’s injera bread to Canada’s poutine, where to get a taste of travel at home

The Irish are a well-travelled lot and we know good food when we find it, so the chance to take our stomachs on tour while staying at home is not one to be passed up. Check out some of the delights of foreign lands being served across the country

Mel Roddy with some Ethiopian cuisine at Gursha on Dublin's Poolbeg Street. Picture by Fran Veale

Alex Meehan

The food of Ethiopia has a unique claim to fame. Ethiopia is one of the few major African countries that was never colonised. As a result, its food is uninfluenced by European styles of cooking. In Gursha, an Ethiopian restaurant on Dublin’s Poolbeg Street, chef Mel Roddy serves up some of the most authentic African food available in Ireland.

“The basis of Ethiopian food is injera, a kind of sour fermented flatbread or pancake with an interesting spongy texture,” says the native of Ethiopia who was raised in Dublin. “It’s part accompaniment and part serving dish, because Ethiopian food is traditionally eaten with the hands, so injera is used to scoop up sauces as well as being tasty in its own right.