It wasn’t exactly the two-day leave I’d hoped for just before the first hard
kick of fall semester activity; I was counting on a couple of nights in NYC,
Lake Placid or possibly Vermont, but (my) poor planning left D. and me with tame
options by comparison, and so a late-summer mini-vacation (while Ph.’s away with
friends for four days at the New Jersey shore) dwindled into an over and back
day-trip to Rochester. Yeah, Rochester…my summer vacation dream.
Although, as things turned out, it wasn’t such a bad turn of events after all,
especially when you consider that we followed up on the recommendation of the
cab driver
who, back in March, shuttled me from Rochester to Syracuse when my flight home
from San Francisco was so long delayed in Chicago. On a scrap of paper he
scrawled the name and address of an Ethiopian Restaurant in Rochester:
Abyssinia, 80 University Ave. That’s where we stopped for lunch today.
Doro W’et on fresh injera (bread).
We had other business in Rochester. D. was scouting out the Rochester
Museum and Science Center as a prospective field trip site for her students.
The museum and science center, as you might expect, is one part science-themed romper
room (live on screen weather reporting…I sucked at that…filled up the whole
TV screen: "Tomorrow, we’ll see a high of…damn, sorry, I’m in the way…just
trust me."
Graceful as always.) and part curatorial archive. Want quiet? Head
to the third floor stuff on Rochester histozzz. Sizing up the whole place,
I’d say the first exhibit,
Turbulent Landscapes, had some of the
best stuff: demos of sand storms and plate tectonics in action.
Still, no question a full-on Ethiopian meal was the highlight of the day. First injera I’ve had in more than a year; there aren’t any Ethiopian restaurants in
Syracuse (will somebody please do something about that?). I even walked out the
door with an order of injera para llevar–nine pieces for about six bucks. For
the terrific quality of service, great food (order light bc the portions!) and
fresh injera, it was well worth the trip, a trip I think I can justify making
again if only for Abyssinia.
That place sounds awesome. If we ever get back to Roc, we’ll have to try it. We should have you guys out here some weekend. There’s a place that does Dim Sum, and it is pretty great. Hadn’t had any for 2+ years (since leaving SF area), and now we’ve been twice. Exciting.
Never tried Dim Sum, but we’d definitely like to try it out. Now that I have a spot I can rely on for good injera, I’d like to host at least one get-together this fall. I can make a decent batch of berbere sauce (it’s like Doro W’et, only the chicken is off the bone, boiled eggs optional), and we eat that regularly on spaghetti. Even more of a treat to have it on injera. Once we all get a feel for the fall semester, let’s plan something.