Discovering Denver's Different Cuisine's

Ethiopian Cuisine: Axum Restaurant

-5501 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80220

It is week two of trying a new food and this week we went to Axum Restaurant. It's an Ethiopian Restaurant off of Colfax. As I am not experienced in the Ethiopian food world, I had my friend pick the establishment.

We arrived at the establishment around 8 PM at night which is probably rather late to be dining but oh well. My friend had mentioned that with Ethiopian food you eat with your hands, strange because I love eating with my hands. Finger foods are my best friend, however eating there having no sort of utensils was an interesting experience. My friend asked me what vegetables I enjoyed because he did the ordering and we decided to only order vegetarian options.

I had no idea what to expect.

My friend got a Lemon Honey water and really enjoyed the natural flavors within it. I am not a huge bubbly water person, but gave it a tester. They brought our food out at a quick pace and I was intrigued to see this estranged plate. They served six different cooked vegetables that you pull apart the bread and add the toppings on it like a mini taco. The bread was a fermented flat bread with lots of holes and moisture as shown above.

I couldn't even tell you what we ordered, but most of them entailed something along the lines of corn, green beans, beans, lentils, peas and some sort of pepper. The food was okay, my favorite were the green beans and carrots. Everything else for me resembled something along the lines of baby food with a base. I was not a fan of the fermented flat break as it tasted salty. Or at least that's all I could describe it as. But once again the benefit of taking someone who has an expanded pallet and like food is no food was wasted. I defiantly recommend the experience of it, as the environment was nice, just not my taste of cuisine.

Yahyas' Mediterranean Grill and Pastries

- 2207 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80206

So last Thursday tuned out to be Saint Patrick's Day and just like me and millions of other American folk, it is the one day of the year where we will actively go out and support Irish pubs. So with the spirit of eating a new cuisine each week, I thought it was only fitting that that's where we would go. Turns out that was a bad overcrowded decision, that we decided against. Especially since all the Irish pubs were just serving normal pub food for the night instead of their normal Irish inspired menu.

After being so hungry and almost settling to Wendy's chicken nuggets, my friend came up with going to this Mediterranean food down the street. That was the best decision of the night!

If your wondering what Mediterranean food is, it can be simplified under hummus and kabobs. Just kidding, mostly. This restaurant appeared as a main stream place with bulky red lettering on the outside. But in the inside, it was quite cute, quaint and not crowded. We ordered a smorgas board of a three different types of meat kababs and we ordered a salad and lentil soup. With the order we received a large plate plate of all hummus with olive oil on top. With that came warm pita bread, my favorite!

The Lentil soup was to die for as I will be going back to enjoy that soup as a full meal next time around. The Kabobs were chicken, steak and a mixed beef kabab. I was technically full after the soup but continued eating because it was all so delicious. The total meal ended up being around forty some dollars and change and totally worth every penny. That is even me saying that because I hate spending money on food, but the experience mixed with the food was one for the making! I will be going back to Yahya's at some point while I live in Denver and I encourage you to do the same!