Benyam Ethiopian Cuisine

Ethiopian food is eaten from a shared tray lined with injera, the spongy, faintly sour flatbread made from fermented teff, which doubles as plate and utensil. Benyam, at the top of Frederick Douglass Boulevard, is a modest neighborhood room where that tray arrives covered in a mosaic of stews: red lentils in berbere, collards, split peas, and doro wat, chicken braised in spiced butter and onions until the sauce turns nearly black.

The mixed platter with kitfo — finely minced beef seasoned with mitmita and spiced butter, served raw, rare or cooked through — is the order. Tear, pinch, scoop, and use the extra injera rolled on the side to chase the last of the sauce.