West Philly’s latest Ethiopian gem serves up exceptional kitfo

Chef Gomege Achamyeleh isn’t telling me the secret seasonings that make her kitfo so good at Amsale Cafe. In fact, it is the clarified butter infused with fragrant spices called niter kibbeh that she’s really not sharing details about. It’s a key ingredient in so many of the classic dishes that make year-old Amsale, West Philly’s newest Ethiopian restaurant, also one of its best.

The homey 28-seat BYOB, set into the tidily converted basement of a former hair salon in Walnut Hill, is a dream project for late career-changer Achamyeleh, 66, a former telemetry technician at now-closed Hahnemann Hospital.

“I was always cooking at home, and I just love to cook. So it’s the same thing here, but I’m just cooking for everybody,” says Achamyeleh.

“She decided that if she ever worked again, she would work for herself,” said her husband, Bellew Asfa, 70, who retired from his job as a legal director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union after three decades to help run the restaurant.

That homespun touch is evident in Achamyeleh’s food at Amsale, which presents traditional dishes with more nuance, depth, and touch than several other local Ethiopian kitchens I’ve eaten at recently. The distinction can be subtle in the array of slow-stewed meats and vegetables. But her skill with spicing is particularly evident with the kitfo, a traditionally raw mince of lean beef where every detail, from the coarseness of the grind (”Not too fine,” says Asfa, “because you need something to chew for the full flavor”) to how the intricate seasonings are layered, is vividly apparent.

Achamyeleh grinds lean halal beef knuckle daily before it’s seasoned to order with ground black cardamom and a hot and garlicky chile powder called mitmita. Only then is it mixed with the molten shine of the niter kibbeh, which is lightly warmed to release its infusion of aromatics — typically cardamom, cinnamon, clove, fenugreek, and cumin, though Achamyeleh will neither confirm nor deny her blend. (”She isn’t sharing her business,” says Asfa with a chuckle after I coyly ask again.)

The result is a half pound of glossy, deep ruby beef that, once wrapped in a tangy pinch of spongy injera flatbread, is a bundle of tartare-like meat that shimmers like a spice market when you take a bite, alternating heat, herbal, floral notes, and buttery richness. Creamy white crumbles of fresh-made cottage cheese on the side add a cooling effect.

Though raw is the traditional way to eat kitfo at its origin in the southern Ethiopia region of Gurage, the majority of Amsale’s Ethiopian customers in Philadelphia order their kitfo cooked, at least partially (lebleb, or medium-rare) if not well-done. The heat transforms it into a different dish, essentially an incredibly aromatic cooked ground beef. What lusciousness you lose from the texture of buttery raw meat is compensated for with the heightened effect of spices that pop at a louder volume, because they are more assertively toasted.

Kitfo, $18.75, at Amsale Cafe, 4817 Walnut St., 215-397-4420; amsalecafe.com

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