The beautiful bracelet I gave Ashley for Christmas came with some special committments to fulfill throughout each year. I call them "fun committments". One of those committments involves eating something we've never eaten. You have to understand, I am one of the pickiest eaters alive. So, this was totally for her because she is the adventurer of the relationship.
Being the fun guy that I am, what day do I decide to fulfill this committment? That's right, I choose Valentine's Day. Instead of taking my wife to a traditional romantic meal with white tablecloths and pleasantly lit candles, I make reservations at a slightly less attractive restaurant which actually turns out to be a converted Burger King. Give it up for Cottage Ethiopian restaurant. You have to laugh when the reviews say something to this effect. "Don't let the outside deceive you." Thanks for the comfort Mr. Restaurant Review guy.
Well, I decided not to let the outside deceive me and made the reservation two days prior to Valentine's Day. I'm pretty sure whoever answered the phone that day was not expecting someone to be making reservations to their little Ethiopian dive in Atlanta. But, she was nice and took my reservation or so I thought she did. She could have been pretending to write down my info for all I know. Shortly after we arrived, I realized they must have had a good laugh after my phone call two days prior. I think Ashley and I were 2 of maybe 12 people in the whole restaurant. At that point, I didn't feel the need to tell her we were Yates party of 2 until later. The waitress kind of smurked when I told her that we were the reservation for 6:30 that evening. I thought all restaurants were packed on Valentine's Day. Nope, not Cottage Ethiopian.
Prior to arriving at the Cottage, Ashley had no idea where we were going. She did, however, have a slight stomach ache. Perfect. What better way to soothe an uneasy stomach than put unfamiliar exotic food into it. As I was driving, I was thinking "great going Adam. You really outdid yourself this time." So, to help prepare her stomach for what was about to happen, halfway into the drive I told her where we were headed and apologized for her uneasy stomach and the food adventure we were getting ready to embark on. She had that nervous excitement look. Don't get me wrong, she was incredibly excited because it's something we've talked about doing for quite a while, but obviously a little nervous for good reason.
As the three of us got there (you didn't think we would go to a Valentine's Day dinner without our beautiful daughter, did you?) we sat down (without admitting that we were the dummies who made a reservation for a restaurant that had barely enough people to fill the bathroom) and began to interpret the menu. The waitress was very sweet and guided us through the menu pointing out that the raw meat was the best and most flavorful. I, embarrased by my lack of knowledge of other culture's food habits, asked if you could eat raw meat. She informed me that raw is how they eat it (not offended by the question at all). Okay. I politely told her I don't think I can eat raw meat and since the only other choice was well done, we ordered our meat well done. We decided to go with the sampler plate which included beef, lamb, chicken, and a variety of vegetable mush along with a very odd spongy bread with little flavor of its own. It was really just there as a collection tool used to get the food to your mouth. As we were told, you eat with your hands, so that is what we did.
We took in all that the experience had to offer and loved every minute of it. We were one with Ethiopia that night and I have to say that the meat (cooked, by the way) was delicious. Ashley, Lorelei and I enjoyed each other that night. It was our first family Valentine's Day and what a way to spend it. We laughed, acted silly, looked ridiculous as we took pictures of our food and each other, and most importantly didn't care what anyone else in the world was doing at that moment. It was our night and we were going to make it memorable. And so we did.
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