Miami New Times
Fit for a Queen
- By Lee Klein
''
Ogbe and Felitia Guobadia, he from Nigeria, she from Virginia, met at Rutgers University and married in Nigeria's former capital Lagos, where they opened an American fried chicken joint. Political turmoil prodded the two back to New Jersey, where they operated a successful African art gallery/Ethiopian restaurant. They next landed in Miami's Design District, where this past May they opened another gallery/restaurant, Sheba Ethiopian Cuisine.
Sheba is an elegant earth-toned, 205-seat eatery that seamlessly melds traditional African craft with chic, contemporary restaurant design. The crafts and imports include carved wooden masks, wicker wall hangings, and mesabs , colorful mushroom-shaped tables woven like baskets and surrounded by short wooden stools (upon which nobody was seated during our visits). American artifacts include a glowing backlit bar, sleek brown leather banquettes, and crisp, champagne-colored linen-topped tables; there are more sweeping curves to the spacious room than on a queen's sinuous crown. The adjoining African arts and crafts shop is accessible from the dining room.
Ethiopia's distinctive cuisine is a result of trade winds that, during the 1400s, blew in chili peppers from Portugal, ginger from the Orient, and all sorts of exotic spices from India and the Middle East. More often than not, Ethiopian dinner comes in the form of thick stews (wat) served atop a spongy, sourdough pancake called injera, which is made from fermented teff (an almost microscopically minuscule grain with a taste similar to millet). This oversize round of grayish-beige bread customarily is placed over the surface of the mesab , which has led more than a few foreigners to mistake the bread for a tablecloth. The puzzlement probably only increases as surrounding diners rip pieces of the pancake-tablecloth with which to scoop up entrées and side dishes. Such confusion won't occur at Sheba, where the yeasty injera does indeed replace utensils (silverware available upon request) but is served folded up on a side plate (and is also found on most plates, underneath the food).
Injera moonlights as an ingredient in some dishes, which are then called fit fit -- as in Sheba's fit fit salad, a slightly piquant mush of the bread minced with tomatoes, onions, and jalapeño peppers, a cilantro-less sister in taste to salsa fresca . A cold, sprightly purée of green lentils ( mesir azefah ) also gets jazzed with jalapeño, along with a scintillating pinch of ginger. Zaalouk and loubia are warm appetizers, the former an assertively cumin-scented mix of eggplant cooked with olive oil, garlic, and ginger, the latter lobbing similar spicing onto sautéed green beans... " >>more
Miami Herlad
The Design District gets groovier as it grows
- By Mimi Whitefield
'' It used to be that venturing into Miami's Design District at 9 p.m. on a Thursday night was akin to visiting a ghost town.
But last week candles flickered on the tables at The District restaurant; the new Ethiopian eatery Sheba seemed to be doing a brisk business; the lunch-time mainstay, The Charcuterie, had opened for dinner; a hostess awaited late-night customers at the nightclub Grass and a group of friends clustered around an outdoor table near a corner café for al fresco conversation under a nearly full Miami moon.
It was a measure of how far the Design District has come in recent years and a hint of its potential as a full-fledged neighborhood where people not only work but also live, play and express their creative side.
In today's cover story, ''Building the Design District,'' (page 26), reporters Matt Haggman and Jo Werne combined to chronicle the changes coming to this neighborhood of designer showrooms and art galleries ... " >>more
Miami Herlad
Sharing the heart of Ethiopian cuisine
- By Nancy Ancrum
'' ... That is the long and the short of why the Guobadias, owners of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant in Miami's Design District, will take part on Saturday in the Taste of the Tropics at Parrot Jungle Island. Money raised at the event will benefit the Transplant Foundation affiliated with the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami.
Sheba, 4029 N. Miami Ave., opened eight months ago, ending Miami's years-long Ethiopian-cuisine drought. It has been building a loyal clientele, Guobadia says, while continuing to attract first-timers. Taste of the Tropics will be an opportunity to broaden the audience.
''We'll prepare some meat dishes and three or four vegetable dishes,'' Guobadia says. ''A doro tibs -- boneless breast of chicken, made with tomatoes, onions and sautéed with qibe, a clarified butter,'' Guobadia says. ``The spices are phenomenal.''
They are, indeed. Nit'ir qibe simmers to a golden yellow with ginger, clove, onion, cardamom and other spices. The combination delivers a sumptuous and exotic kick.
Sheba will also offer dishes featuring berbere sauce, in which even more spices (coriander, fenugreek and paprika are just a few) are toasted, ground and mixed into nit'ir qibe.
Guobadia knows it's not easy for the uninitiated to tell their tibs from their wats, two principal Ethiopian dishes.
He explains: A tibs is sautéed with tomatoes and onions. ''What we call our African salsa.'' Any wat that features meat is stewed with berbere sauce. ``Vegetable wats, as opposed to meat wats, are not spicy. There's no berbere sauce -- but it's still wat ... " >>more
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