Den Den Restaurant: A Taste of Eritrea, a Country Since '93!

We've encountered some skepticism that we'll be able to achieve our goal of eating the cuisines of 52 different countries in a year (you know who you are, M.F.), but we have gone confidently forward, knowing Chicago will provide for us.  And Time Out magazine just served us up an easy one!  Beth was thumbing throw an issue and read about Den Den, an Eritrean restaurant in Rogers Park.  Where is Eritrea you ask?  Or you might also ask, is it really a country, or perhaps the name of some lesser known internal organ located, probably, near the appendix?  Well, according to extensive Internet research (aka Wikipedia), up until 1993, it was just the northern part of Ethiopia along the Red Sea, but they gained their independence after a 30 year civil war.  Our first question was how this food would be different from Ethiopian, but the Time Out article helpfully pointed out that this part of Africa had been an Italian colony for many years and that link had influenced the cuisine.  With images of injera bread and meatballs dancing in our heads, we set off on the 151 bus to discover the tastes of Eritrea!