Addis Ababa is a huge and confusing city and, to a new arrival, it can seem overwhelming and inaccessible. It’s sprawling, busy, and chaotic but it has a charm to it that I love and it invites me to try to uncover its mysteries. One of my favourite things to do in Addis is just to walk around, explore, and see what I see. True, I’m making a map of the city so that’s kind of a part of my job, but work aside, wandering Addis’ streets, observing the hustle bustle, and seeking out restaurants and cafes that I’ve never been to before is fun for me.

So, with this in mind, I was pretty pumped to discover Addis Eats. This small company started a few years ago giving food tours around the city and they’ve since grown to include market and city tours along with custom tours out of town. Addis Eats was started by Eliza and Xavi, Americans with a love of Ethiopia. Eliza grew up in Washington DC but has a special connection Ethiopia, having grown up with an Ethiopian nanny since she was two months old. Since her early days she’s been listening to Amharic, has been in a house full of Ethiopian friends, has driven with Ethiopian music blasting in the car, and most importantly for their current business, she’s been eating Ethiopian food for a long, long time. She’s taken all of this an forged it into a pretty great little business and I was super excited to try their food tour.

Our tour happened to be led by the Addis Eats founders themselves, but their company employs several Ethiopian guides who get amazing reviews as well. I was impressed with Eliza and Xavi from the start. They’ve got an excellent rapport with everyone they come in contact with and a real understanding of life in Ethiopia and the ability to explain things to us confused new arrivals. They’re patient with questions and thorough with their descriptions and explanations of everything, leaving us tour-takers feeling quite informed. This personal connection to Ethiopia, her and her partner’s skills with Amharic, and their love of great food makes them a pretty great team to run an Addis Ababa food tour.

Our afternoon eating frenzy started at O’Canada, a popular bar in the Chechnya area of Addis that taxi drivers know, making it a good meeting point. After a coffee and a quick orientation and explanation of our stops, we hit the road towards our first destination – a popular local restaurant known for it’s shiro. Not being all that familiar with what shiro actually is, the Addis Eats folks gave a good explanation. We also got a nice history of the restaurant along with a useful demonstration on how best to eat injira. Sadly for me, I still had a nice selection of reds and yellows on my pants before the trip was done. The atmosphere in the first restaurant was great, the food even better, and on top of all of that, we got to sample a few of Ethiopia’s beers.

We wandered on from there stopping at a cool tea and oils shop before meandering through an interesting old neighbourhood. We saw some berbere drying out in the streets and were treated to some more anecdotes on life in Addis as we walked. Our next stop was a meat house with some of the most amazing beef I’ve ever had. It better be good – that’s all they serve! I even tried it raw in all of its chewy, meaty, glory. I only had one piece of the raw stuff before switching back to something more familiar, but I was happy to have had the opportunity to give it a try. We dabbed our meat in some great sauces and washed it all down with ‘turbo’ before continuing on our way.

Next up was fish. While Ethiopia seems to be all about meat, somehow fish has become an acceptable meal during the fasting times – which we learned all about. We were presented with a plate of fried fish, given some background on where the main fishing areas of the country area, and washed it all down with some more beers before moving next door to a local coffee house.

We got a bit of a crash course on the history of coffee, the Ethiopian love affair with the drink, and their care in preparing it in their own homes as part of coffee ceremonies. We also learned that these small coffee houses that are scattered all over the city attempt to combine the atmosphere and great coffee into a shorter experience and had some amazing coffee at what is essentially a local neighbourhood cafe. Plus, there’s popcorn!

Moving on and feeling nicely full, slightly boozed, and enjoying good conversation, we wandered just a bit down the street to a juice place. Juice in Ethiopia seems to be a ‘thing’. There are fruit stalls all over the place and most will whip up a delicious, fresh juice from within their small shops. We parked ourselves in a nice outdoor seating space and waited for the for our ‘esprice’, a mix of the day’s fresh juice. Sometimes these are served in layers but today our 5 or 6 juices were mixed into a delicious orange medley of fantastic fruitiness. It was a perfect end to a wonderful afternoon of eating and drinking new things in exciting and interesting places I never would have found on my own.

The Addis Eats’ tour I was on is their food culinary tour for a very reasonable $60. The tour runs for 3 to 4 hours, explores an awesome part of the city, and includes food at three restaurants with unlimited beers, soft drinks, and coffee. Minimum group size is two people and the maximum is 12, but if there are more then 8 there’s an extra guide. You can join them for a lunch tour starting at 11:30am or the dinner tour from 4pm but they’re pretty flexible and generally willing to tweak the time if necessary.

Check out their Addis Eats website for a list of all of the tours they have on offer. It really was a great afternoon of eating, drinking, nice people, interesting places, and good conversation. I think this sort of a thing is perfect both for tourists with a limited amount of time but also for new arrivals who might be moving to Addis for the longer term. I mean, you can get the lowdown on an awesome shiro place, great meat, and a fantastic place for fish to keep visiting over and over during your stay in Addis. Plus you’ll get a useful bit of background to the city and the customs of Ethiopia. It’s a great introduction to a really interesting and exciting place and you’ll be happy you let the folks at Addis Eats lead you around.

If I haven’t convinced you, check out their reviews on Trip Advisor. They’re the number one option for things to do in Addis and they deserve every great review they’ve gotten so far!

On arriving at an Addis Ababa party with offerings of home baked food, you’ll generally be asked one of two things (most likely you’ll be asked both): “How did you find baking at altitude” and “where did you find all of the ingredients”?

In line with these questions, there are a couple of well-known facts in Addis – both altitude and ingredients play havoc with baking. You can’t do a lot about either, other than to persevere or to just stop trying and buy from a bakery that has solved the challenges for you (see below)!

For the fans of persevering, here’s the science behind baking altitude…

From 1,000+ metres, the low air pressure means your bake will rise more easily, and lose any moisture it has far more quickly (as water boils at a lower temperature at high altitude – who knew?!). As if this wasn’t enough, air in your bake can collect into large pockets resulting in a funny texture, or reach such a high pressure that cell walls stretch and burst, making a crater like cake. Really, it’s a minefield!

By amending your baking times, or ingredient quantities, you can overcome all of these issues, it just needs a little (read a lot) of trial and error.

Then comes your second challenge – ingredients. I continue to maintain that you can get pretty much everything you need in Addis Ababa; depending on what it is, it just might take a bit of hunting (that time you saw marshmallows and Lindt Chocolate on sale… it’ll be another four months before they’re imported again) and quality varies (so much so, that on trips home, you hear of expats returning with butter, chocolate chips, cheese and sugar… all of the usual customs suspects!).

Why do people do this? Well, in Ethiopia butter doesn’t taste of much, eggs are miniature (literally laid for The Borrower family) and sugar particles are so big, you’re first ever cake baking attempt will come complete with crystals caverns in it.

As an eternal optimist however, these challenges are fun to overcome (including power cuts mid-bake), and if you choose to be in the perseverance camp, you’ll likely also feel incredibly proud of yourself if you manage to take an offering to any party that is edible and looks vaguely like anything you’re pretending it is!

Whilst not really proper ‘bakes’ (I’m an optimist, not a real Addis baker!) these few recipes have been tried and tested, and you can often get hold all of the ingredients…

– Chewy Sultana Cookies from Deliciously Ella

– Instant Chocolate Mousse from Nigella Lawson

– Katie’s Cheese Straws, courtesy of the Gill family: Rub 42 grams butter into 85 grams plain flour so that it looks like breadcrumbs and then add 55 grams grated cheese, salt and plenty of pepper. Mix in ½ an egg yolk (one yolk if you’re using mini Habesha eggs) and 1 tablespoon of water to bring the mix together into a ball. Add more water as necessary. Chill for 30 minutes, and then roll out, cut into strips and twist. Cook at 180 C for between 20-30 minutes. You can add chilli flakes if you like, and play around with different cheeses…half feta half Gouda works well.

For the less optimistic reader…you’ll find wonderful cakes and bread at Mulmul Bakery, Five Loaves Cafe, Munch German Bakery and for a real treat, the Sheraton Bakery.

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People often say that when you arrive somewhere new, you should get up high to get the lay of the land and work out what’s what. In Addis Ababa, this is a must – sprawled over 203 square miles, getting your bearings isn’t for the faint-hearted.

You would think that getting a view in Addis would be easy – there are tower blocks going up on every corner. I’ve heard that a building won’t get planning permission now if it’s less than nine storeys. I don’t know how true this is, but when you see the building site that is Addis, you can certainly believe it.

The problem however with most of these tower blocks, is that very few of them are accessible. They tend to be shops for the first few floors, with everything above being used as offices. When I first arrived I successfully made it to the top of one of these office blocks (not yet understanding the format) and emerged from the lift on the tenth floor into someone’s office. It was slightly awkward to say the least, but they had a great view, and it made me want one too.

And so the hunt began for where to go to really see and understand Addis, ideally with good food and drink to accompany.

For years, Top View has been the natural suggestion. That is, until the Belle-Vue Hotel and Spa was built in front of it, leaving Top View, viewless. To say this is a shame is an understatement – Top View is a beautiful Italian restaurant nestled into the hill behind Meganegna roundabout, with what would have been panoramic views across the city. The prices seem to have reduced since they lost their view, and it is certainly still worth visiting.

This has allowed Belle-Vue Hotel and Spa to probably stand as the best place to go if you want an aerial view of the city. Head to Bar Osaka on the seventh floor to see Addis sprawling in-front of you, taking in the airport to the South, the city to the West and the surrounding Entoto hills holding everything in place. The glass lift that clutches to the side of the building gives you a glimpse of the city below as you head up to the bar.

One of my favourite places is Bunni’s, a café not far from the Greek Embassy, that whilst only five floors up, has a balcony on three sides to look out over the South and West of the city including the African Union’s iconic tower. From here, you can almost make yourself believe that Addis is a lush and green city. Almost.

The owner of the successful café chain, Limetree, has recently opened Kaba on the seventh floor of the Park Plaza building on Atlas junction. A modern Ethiopian restaurant, the food is good (injera aplenty) and with a large outside seating area, once the rains have gone, it’ll make a lovely place to enjoy dinner with a view.

Some hotels have made the most of their position and height, but in my opinion, none of them have quite got it right yet. Harmony Hotel by Edna Mall has a mediocre bar and restaurant on their top floor, with a small amount of outside space, whilst Ras Amba Hotel between Kebena and Arat Kilo roundabouts has made more of an effort with their third floor bar which has a super view, yet remains somewhat uninspiring. The Intercontinental in Kasanchis is probably the winner with their rooftop pool and bar – it’s worth a visit.

If you remove food and drink from the equation, climbing up into the Entoto Hills that surround Addis is by far the best place to go on a clear and sunny day. You’ll find dog walkers aplenty, a rock-hewn church (beyond the German Embassy) and a spectacular view that lets you take in all of Addis Ababa and beyond.

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As the butter crisis continues (the constant hunt for butter has become a crisis in our household) it’s heightened my appreciation for the journey that food makes from field to plate. I’m no expert, but have been told that the lack of butter at the moment is down to the belg (small rains in February/March) being late, which has resulted in less grass for the cows and subsequently a smaller production of milk. Hence no butter.

Whilst it’s frustrating and a hit many farmers really can’t afford to take, there’s something important about feeling the direct relation between weather and food – it makes it far more real.

This ongoing hunt for butter has brought dairy to the forefront of my mind (I love food) and so to cheese. My love of cheese is almost as big as my love of cheese jokes. What can I say, they make me laugh. I naively didn’t think about cheese before coming to Addis. I figured I’d be able to get it, and I can, but it’s not the tasty, salty, crumbly, fatty, creamy cheese I was used to in London. And that’s probably no bad thing, except that I miss it.

So, I’ve been on a cheese hunt recently, having been told about Planet Cheese in Old Airport.

Planet Cheese was established just under a year ago by an Italian cheese lover. The moment he started telling me about what was available, I could tell he knew his stuff. They stock all kinds of tasty cheese – roule, halloumi, gouda, manchego, cloth wrapped cheddar, goats cheese – and pride themselves on pasteurising all milk used so everything is suitable for pregnant women, and they use no rennet, so everything is vegetarian friendly.

Whilst a lot of the cheese comes from Kenya, they have three plants in Ethiopia, from which they make their own yoghurt, mozzarella, and ricotta.

For those that can eat cheese on its own, this is all good. For those that need a vehicle, they sell beautiful looking cheese biscuits and onion jam – heaven!

How do you find this heavenly place? Just down from Laphto Mall, opposite Home Depot you’ll find their small deli next to Cupcake Delight in Bayne Building. They open seven days a week, 8am – 8pm.

Following my visit to Planet Cheese, I questioned friends about where they go to get tasty cheese – turns out we’re all going to similar places! Our little local shop off Kebena roundabout (and many other small supermarket shops) stock the tasty Holland Dairy Gouda; Salem’s Children Village occasionally have a delicious goats cheese (and spinach and parmesan pies); and the famous Luigi out in CMC makes his own cheddar.

At restaurants, the cheese board at La Louvre is excellent (especially with a basil cocktail in hand) and in the past week, Taza Café have just added their delicious cheese scones to their menu – melt in the mouth heaven. They’re made with a spicy Gouda, and Sara who runs Taza, is a big advocate for Holland Dairy and the cheese waves they’re making in Ethiopia.

For everyone who told me you can only import good cheese here, check out some of these places, and I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If you don’t get to Planet Cheese for their crackers, here are some you can easily make (you can substitute poppy seeds for more sesame seeds), recipe courtesy of my partner’s family, the Gills.

Poppy and Sesame Seed Crackers

• 250g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 60g unsalted butter, cold and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Stir in the seeds and pepper. Rub in the butter to make your mix like breadcrumbs.
3. Make a well in the centre and add 100 ml iced water. Mix with knife, then hands, to make a firm dough (be careful not to overmix)
4. Form the dough into a rough ball then cut in half. Wrap one half in clingfilm and pop in the fridge. Roll the other half between two sheets of baking paper until 1-2mm thick. Cut into rounds (6cm cutter is best but I use a glass here)
5. Place on baking sheet, prick with a fork all over and repeat with the rest of the dough
6. Chill for 20 mins and then bake for 20-35 mins until golden brown