Phoenix New Times
Watt's Good for You -
By Stephen Lemons
Chandler gets an Ethiopian restaurant
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Tina Tamrat Hildebrand laughs and smiles shyly when I play reporter rather than gentleman, and ask her age. This fetching little Ethiopian lady could pass for someone in her mid-to-late 20s, but curiosity has yet to kill the culinary critic, which is why I pose the question.
"You know, in Ethiopia, people do not think about age," she explains in her charming trill of an accent. "In Ethiopia, we don't celebrate birthdays. Most people are born at home, and may not even know their exact age."
 Further complicating matters is the fact that Ethiopia uses a 13-month calendar that runs about seven to eight years behind our own Gregorian. But when Hildebrand came to the United States in 1991 as a refugee of war and government repression, she suddenly discovered that here, everyone must know his or her age. She finally determined that she must have been born in the year 1974 of the Western calendar, which will make her 31 this year.
Hildebrand communicates all this as we're seated in her cozy little Chandler eatery Tina's Ethiopian Cafe, and it suddenly strikes me how utterly different life must be in the city of her birth, Addis Ababa. I've eaten at the Valley's other Ethiopian restaurants, and at Ethiopian spots in New York and Los Angeles, but never has eating Ethiopian seemed so intimate as at Tina's.
Part of this has to do with the fact that Hildebrand acts not only as chef, but server. Also, I think it's because Hildebrand has made her cafe an extension of her home. In the front part of the main dining area, you can choose from either a Western-style table or one of the colorful messobs , the traditional dining tables of Ethiopia hand-woven from a special grass. Tempe's Cafe Lalibela and Blue Nile offer this, too, but toward the back of Tina's is an area set up like a den, with a couch and comfy chairs, a coffee table, and a TV set, which screens Ethiopian videos showing demonstrations of tribal dancing or maybe a drama. Hildebrand's hubby, Dan, and her children David, 6, and Daisy, less than a year, are often nearby, adding to the overall aura of domesticity.
The windows are shrouded by curtains in the red, green and yellow of the Ethiopian flag. African carvings, Ethiopian Orthodox crosses, and posters of beautiful Ethiopian women cover the walls. Ethiopian music plays on the stereo, and Ethiopian trinkets are for sale in a display case near the front, along with copies of Hildebrand's self-published cookbook Secrets From Tina's Ethiopian Cafe..." >>more
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Tina's Ethiopian Cafe has been open since March of 2004.
Tina's ethiopian cuisine offers an exceptional and exquisite array of flavorful food. Traditional bread, called Enjera, is used in place of utensils. Enjera is made from a grain called Teff. Teff is high in Iron, Protein and Fiber. (Tina's website)